Book Roundup

I’ve written a lot about books recently, so please bear with me for one last book mega-post, and then we’ll move on to other topics.

During our recent cruise to the Panama Canal (more on that in a later post), I was perusing the ship’s library and came across the cool-sounding Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Tales by Algernon Blackwood.  The summary on the back cover included lots of quotes by H.P. Lovecraft praising the author, so I figured it must be good.  I flipped to the table of contents and noticed a story named “Wendigo”.  I was hooked.

You will of course remember the book I recently read about Wendigos.  It occurred to me that I never explained what a Wendigo is; I hadn’t heard the term until recently.  Basically it’s a Native American myth about an evil spirit often associated with wind, severe cold, and starving to death.  The exact details vary quite a bit, and what appears in fiction usually doesn’t match the historical descriptions, but in a nutshell, that’s it.

Algernon Blackwood’s short story was the first instance of Wendigos in fiction.  It, along with the other short stories in the book, was excellent.  Most of them can best be described as creepy nature stories.  His work is now in the public domain, so you can find a lot of his stories online, in the Kindle store, etc, for free.  “The Willows” and “Wendigo” are both really good.

However, the inspiration for this blog post was not the Algernon Blackwood book, but the other book I read while on the cruise:  “Zodiac” by Neal Stephenson.

Several years ago, at a company book sale, I came across a book called “Snow Crash”.  I half-remembered hearing of it before and having some kind of positive association with it, but that was all I could recall at the time.  So I bought it and read it.  And it turned out to be absolutely insane, crazy, over-the-top cyberpunk fun.  As soon as I finished it I turned to Wendy and said “Best.  Book.  Ever!”

That started me reading other Neal Stephenson books.  A couple of books later I read “Cryptonomicon”, which blew my mind.  I’d forgotten how a book, when it completely captivates you, causes your entire reality to shift into two modes:  Reading-Your-Book and Not-Reading-Your-Book.  When you’re Not-Reading-Your-Book all you can think about is getting back to Reading-Your-Book.  So you do whatever you can to get back there.  That was me during Cryptonomicon.  (I remember Wendy going through those modes when she read the staggeringly-long “Lymond Chronicles” by Dorothy Dunnett.)  After I finished Cryptonomicon, I turned to Wendy and said “I have to modify my earlier statement about Snow Crash.  Snow Crash is the Most Entertaining Book ever.  Cryptonomicon is the Best Book Ever.”  Even better than the Count of Monte Cristo, which I read way back here.

Since then I’ve plowed through the remaining Stephenson books.  From The Baroque Cycle, to Anathem, his most recent, which I inhaled more than read because it was so fascinating.  Zodiac, then, was one of his earliest books, and the final book of his I had yet to read.  The cruise gave me plenty of time to finish it.  And when I was done, I had really enjoyed it.

Much of why I enjoy his books so much is they often involve and hinge upon complex, technical subjects he’s able to easily explain. So not only do you get an entertaining story, but it’s almost like you’ve gotten an introductory college course on a particular topic by the time you’ve finished one of his books.  At the very least, you’ve gotten a glimpse into a complex subject you may never have learned about otherwise.

Here’s a breakdown of his books and a few of the broad topics each covers.

Zodiac
* Toxic chemicals

Snow Crash
* 3-D virtual worlds, Hacking, Ancient Sumerian mythology

The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer
* Nanotechnology

Cryptonomicon
* Math, Cryptography, Hacking, Information Theory

Quicksilver (Baroque Cycle, Part 1)
The Confusion (Part 2)
The System of the World (Part 3)
* Money, Finance, The Royal Society, Isaac Newton

Anathem
* Consciousness, Quantum Physics, Cosmology

If you’re interested in any of these, be warned that several of his later works are incredibly long (1000+ pages).  But, that’s part of the fun!

Merry Christmas!

OU vs Nebraska

A few days ago Wendy and I were talking college football, and I was telling her about one my favorite OU vs Nebraska plays, when I remembered another favorite, and then another favorite, and I thought “Hey, I should blog this”.

So here they are, in chronological order:

OU vs Nebraska, 2000

Probably my favorite, because I was at this game. Nebraska jumps out to a quick 14-0 lead, OU trims it to 14-7, and then on 3rd and 14, Heupel throws a long, arcing pass right as he's knocked to the ground. I looked downfield, there were no receivers anywhere, and I thought “Man, incomplete. 4th down.”. Out of nowhere, though, Curtis Fagan breaks free, sprints underneath the ball, catches and scores. Tie game! OU goes on to win 31-14.

OU vs Nebraska, 2001

This was a defensive battle between the top 2 teams in the country, and what I remember most are the trick plays. OU ran a reverse to Mark Clayton, who stopped and threw back to a wide open Nate Hybl. Hybl, unfortunately, stumbled and fell while the ball was in the air. Incomplete pass. Later in the game, Nebraska ran the same trick play, but Eric Crouch did not stumble; he made the catch and scored a TD. Unbelievable. Both teams had been practicing the same trick play during the week. One worked, one didn’t. Nebraska won, 20-10.

OU vs Nebraska, 2006 (Big 12 Championship game)

Up 14-7 in the 3rd, OU had the ball at their own 1-yard line on 3rd and 10. Nebraska had momentum, and with a stop would get the ball with great field position. Instead, Paul Thompson hits Jermaine Gresham for a 35-yard completion and a 1st down. That kickstarts a 99-yard touchdown drive(!!), putting OU comfortably in the lead. Nebraska never recovers; OU wins 21-7.

And now I can add this to the list...

OU vs Nebraska, 2010 (Big 12 Championship game)

It’s too early to say what the most memorable play will be, but here are some nominees:

• OU falling behind 17-0, but rallying to tie the game in the 2nd quarter.
• Travis Lewis’ game-changing interception in the end zone, the first of 3 turnovers he recovered.
• In the 4th quarter, OU had 3rd and 24 when Cameron Kenney catches a 20-yard pass and fights, fights, fights for 3 more yards. That brought up 4th and 1, making it an easy decision to go for it. OU converts, throwing to Kenney again, for an 11-yard gain, which sets up the game-winning field goal by Jimmy Stevens. Go Jimmy!
• Late in the game, Nebraska attempts a fake punt on 4th and 4, but just as they start the fake, the play is whistled dead. Stoops realized it was a fake at the last second, and called timeout just before the ball was snapped. With the element of surprise gone, Nebraska is forced to punt.

Final score: OU 23, Nebraska 20.

Monsters Reloaded

I finished reading The Curse of the Wendigo (the sequel to The Monstrumologist), and it’s fantastic. It doesn’t have as much gore and viscera as the first book, but makes up for it in other ways. I won’t give anything away.

Both of these books are really top-notch, and deal with some impressively adult themes. For instance, Dr. Pellinore Warthrop is a so-called monster-hunter, but despises the term, preferring instead to be labeled a philosopher of “aberrant biology”. After all, what is a monster? Is a lion a monster for attacking and eating the antelope? Then what of the creature whose sole means of survival is attacking and eating humans? Is it a monster for trying to live, for trying to provide food for its young?

And speaking of young, how do these “monsters” propagate their species? At what rate? What is their natural habitat? Are they nocturnal? How do they capture their prey? These are the questions that drive Dr. Warthrop.

Similarly, as the Doctor’s young assistant, Will Henry, points out, “monsters” aren’t always giant, man-eating creatures. Sometimes they’re microscopic parasites living in your blood, inflicting... well, I won’t give anything away.

Coming back to reality, all of this talk reminds me of an article I read in New Scientist last year, about the closest thing Earth has to the alien from the Alien movies starring Sigourney Weaver. The best the author could find was a long, stringy, parasitic worm; I don’t remember the exact details, thankfully, but I do remember feeling sick to my stomach afterwards, and thinking “I wish I had never read that.” Trust me, it was gross.

To finish on a less gruesome note, the Monstrumologist books remind me of one of my favorite authors growing up, John Bellairs. He wrote creepy, gothic horror children’s books full of crypts, tombs, evil spirits, magic artifacts, and haunted dwellings. Almost as good as the stories were the illustrations, drawn by the macabre Edward Gorey. (Unfortunately, the more recent printings of Bellairs’ books no longer have Gorey illustrations. If you’re interested in reading Bellairs, try finding some older printings.)

Among the various characters Bellairs created, Johnny and Professor Childermass were by far my favorite. Will Henry and Dr. Warthrop remind me a lot of Johnny and the Professor: Johnny and Will Henry are both the same age; and while the Professor has a love of chocolate cake, Dr. Warthrop loves raspberry scones. But the similarities are only superficial, I must say. Johnny and the Professor are short, creepy stories for middle school kids; Will Henry and Dr. Warthrop are lengthy, gruesome books for young adults.

Treats

1. While we were at the grocery store today, the X-Files theme song started playing.
2. For the first time ever, the grocery store had OU apparel for sale. I scored an OU shirt and cap.
3. A Halloween Android to add to my collection.
4. On Thursday, November 11th, a special SpongeBob episode will air: "Mystery with a Twistery". Our Tivo is set.
5. 5 Things SpongeBob SquarePants Can Teach You About Business

Boomer! Sooner!

I can’t let this week pass without mentioning college football.

Last Saturday, sometime around 6pm, there was a volcanic eruption of cheering centered around our house. OU, clinging to a 1-possession lead with a minute remaining, recovered a muffed punt to seal a victory against Texas!

I don’t think I’ve ever cheered so hard before. I’ve certainly screamed that hard in disgust (the Oregon game in ‘06), but this was a pure victory celebration. OU was in control for most of the game, but a bizarre series of plays tightened the game late in the 4th quarter, and only when OU recovered the muffed punt could we breathe a sigh of relief. Or, to put it more accurately, run all around the room, jumping up and down, screaming because we just beat Texas.

Boomer Sooner, baby!

Snap to, dear readers! Snap to!

Way back in January, at my day job, I came across a fantastic-sounding book review; a review so good I had to share it with Wendy. The book was The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey. This was the review, in part:

Grades 9-12. With a roaring sense of adventure and enough viscera to gag the hardiest of gore hounds, Yancey’s series starter might just be the best horror novel of the year. Will Henry is the 12-year-old apprentice to Pellinore Warthrop, a brilliant and self-absorbed monstrumologist—a scientist who studies (and when necessary, kills) monsters in late-1800s New England.

...

Yancey keeps the shocks frequent and shrouded in a splattery miasma of blood, bone, pus, and maggots.

...

Yancey’s prose is stentorian and wordy, but it weaves a world that possesses a Lovecraftian logic and hints at its own deeply satisfying mythos. Most effective of all, however, is the weirdly tender relationship between the quiet, respectful boy and his strict, Darwinesque father figure. “Snap to!” is Warthrop’s continued demand of Will, but readers will need no such needling.

Source: Booklist

Wendy shared the same enthusiasm as I. “Dude, that sounds awesome!” she said. I checked all the local libraries online, but it was checked out everywhere. The book had just won a Michael L. Printz Honor Award, which is how I heard about it, so it was no surprise the book was so popular.

Several months later, at the company book sale, we were winding down by going through the stacks of books we’d each found. As luck would have it, Wendy had found a copy of The Monstrumologist! Sweet!

The next several months, though, it sat in a big pile of books, nearly forgotten. However, I recently re-discovered it, remembered my earlier excitement, and decided to give it a read.

Well, I finished it last night.

And wow, that book has an astounding amount of gore! And it’s really good!

If you like your stories dark, grim, gruesome, appalling, with a LOT of gore, and with hordes of ravenous, man-slaughtering monsters, then you may have just met your match.

As for me, I think I’ll try something lighter for my next book.

But wait! There’s more!

I just discovered the sequel is about to be released! It’s called The Curse of the Wendigo and the Booklist review says it has "more honest emotion than any book involving copious de-facings (yes, you read that right) ought to have".

A One-Of-A-Kind Post

Several months ago I got a new Android smartphone. I hesitate to use the word phone, because it's far more of a hand-held computer than any kind of phone. There are apps galore that can be downloaded for it, and I've been having fun trying out a bunch of them, particularly astronomy apps. Some apps (Google Sky) are great for identifying stars and constellations, and others (Iridium Flares, Satellite Flybys) are great for spotting iridium flares, satellites, and the space station.

The Android OS has its own little mascot. This guy:

And a while back, a company started selling collectible Android figurines like this:

They turned out to be hugely popular, and sold out nearly instantaneously.

This brings me to my birthday! Wendy let it be known that:

1. She was making me a birthday present.
2. The magnitude of its dorkiness would be off the charts.
3. She waited too long to start it and was now hurrying to finish it in time.

I honestly had no idea what it could be.

So, on my birthday, the mystery was solved when I unwrapped this:

I loved it! It was way cooler than anything I had imagined she was making, and I was totally impressed with her mad crocheting skillz.

A few days after my birthday, the company got more figurines in stock, so I jumped at the chance to get some friends (minions?) for my custom-made Android:

The little guy on the right, by the way, is a glow-in-the-dark "radioactive" android.

The Android wasn't the only hand-made gift I got, either. Long-time readers of our blog know that Wendy and I love books, and we have a lot of them. So, some months ago, when my Mom mysteriously asked for a list of authors and books I like, I knew something was up. And when Cory blogged about his Concorde birthday gift a few months ago, I knew something cross-stitch-y was up.

Once again, the mystery was solved when I opened the box and found this:

(click to embiggen)

A very cool, not to mention very creative, gift that goes quite well with our tall bookshelves and stacks of books piled high.

A Monumental Report

Recently, I came home from work and Wendy was at the laptop surfing the web.

"I just finished reading an article about the 20 least-visited national monuments in the U.S. Guess how many we've been to!" she said.

It was a leading question, to be sure, so I knew the answer was greater than zero.

"Um, two?"

"You're right!" she replied. "Now guess which ones!"

Hm, a much tougher question. I thought about it for a bit and made a few wrong guesses. Then said: "George Washington Carver National Monument?"

"That's one!"

We wrote briefly about our stops at the GWC National Monument a few years ago. I'm surprised it made it in the top 20 least-visited monuments, but according to the article it comes in at #13, with 39,000 visitors last year.

So, one down, one to go. I tried a few more ideas, but with no luck. "Ok, I don't know. What's the other one?"

"The Capulin Volcano in New Mexico," Wendy said.

Ah, Mount Capulin. I would never have come up with that. It's a cinder-cone volcano in northeastern New Mexico.

Back in our Colorado days we took a continuing-ed Astronomy class at Colorado State University. From the class we learned about Star Hill Inn, an astronomy retreat in the mountains of New Mexico. You rent a cabin in the woods and get access to over a dozen telescopes of all different types to use for stargazing.

We went a few times and really enjoyed it. It was during one of those stays we visited the Capulin Volcano which was nearby. The thing I remember most is thinking we picked the right day to go; it was cloudy and cool, while the day before and day after were sunny and very hot. Had it been sunny and clear, though, we might have seen portions of four states from the highest point (New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado).

I am sad to report while writing this post I discovered that Star Hill Inn is now closed. Bummer. It was a very cool place.

Finally:

"Now guess what the least-visited monument is and how many visitors it had last year."

"Well, it has to be in Alaska. 50 visitors?"

"Aniakchak, Alaska. 14 visitors!"

More Turtle Videos!

Turtles have a long and storied tradition on our blog: from sunbathing on logs to the annual migration across our yard. This year, we've decided to super-size that tradition! I now present to you, courtesy of the Springfield Zoo, a Galápagos Tortoise:

For the past few years we've been meaning to visit the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL. We've heard a number of good reviews of it, so over Easter Weekend we drove down for a few days.

Because rain was forecast for the latter part of the weekend, we decided to do the outdoors attractions first. Thus, our first stop was the Springfield Zoo. It was fairly small as one might expect, and a few exhibits were closed until later in the spring, but it was still a decent outing. Our encounter with Mr. Galápagos was alone worth the price of admission.

Afterwards, we visited the Dana-Thomas House which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. We went on an hour-long tour of the house, but pictures were not allowed inside, so you'll have to make do with these exterior shots. The interior, by the way, was very elaborate with lots of winding passageways.

Finally, at the end of our first day we visited Lincoln's Tomb. This was much more moving than either of us expected it to be.

Day 2 was devoted exclusively to Lincoln. We spent the entire morning exploring the Lincoln Museum, and yes, it is quite good. There's a lot of information presented very effectively. Again, no pictures were allowed of the exhibits, so you'll have to take our word on it.

One of the highlights was seeing one of Mr. Lincoln's top-hats on display (there are only 3 left in the world, the very helpful volunteer told us), complete with thumbprints on the brim where he would tip his hat. Lincoln wore the hats partly because he liked to carry papers inside of them.

Finally, from a gift-shop book I learned that Lincoln had quite a temper as a young politician, published vicious letters anonymously in the paper attacking his opponents, was found out by one of those opponents, and was challenged to a duel. Both men met with swords at the alotted time before a peace deal was struck at the last minute. (The entire affair is rather funny; you can read a full account here.)

For the last stop on our Lincoln Tour, we spent a while touring the neighborhood and house Lincoln lived in for 17 years.

Lincoln did quite well as a lawyer in Springfield.

This house was remodeled twice during his stay.

Lincoln's sofa. It was actually long enough for him to recline in.

His work desk in the bedroom.

We left Springfield the next morning, but took a longer route home so we could meet Danny and two of his friends in Champaign, IL. We had a delicious Easter brunch at Carmon's restaurant (their crepes are quite good), and enjoyed catching up on the latest news.

Kitto Katsu!

A few weeks ago I strode confidently into the living room and announced:

"I have an announcement!"

Wendy, perhaps mildly bemused, looked up from the laptop and cupped her hand around her ear.

"I am ordering Nestle Kit Kats from Amazon!" I stated, proudly and boldly. She cracked up, we exchanged a high five, and off I went to complete my purchase.

Rewinding several days, I was telling Wendy everything I had just learned about Kit Kats. I'd read a BBC article comparing Kit Kats and bananas as snacks, and it became apparent that Kit Kats in the rest of the world are vastly different than Kit Kats in the U.S. So I turned to the Kit Kat wikipedia page to fill in the details. Here are the things I learned:

• Kit Kats were created in England by a company called Rowntree, supposedly after a factory worker put a suggestion in the suggestion box for a snack a "man could have in his lunch box for work".
• Kit Kats are made by Nestle everywhere except the U.S., where they're made by Hershey.
• U.S. Kit Kats taste differently than those in the rest of the world (the U.S. version has more sugar and less milk).
• Nestle bought Rowntree in 1988 thus acquiring the Kit Kat brand, but they had to honor a 1969 licensing agreement Rowntree had made with Hershey to sell Kit Kats in the U.S.
• The deal is that if Hershey is ever sold, the U.S. Kit Kat rights revert back to Nestle. Hershey did try to sell itself in 2002, but failed, partly because if someone bought Hershey, they would immediately lose the Kit Kat brand.
• Kit Kats have become very popular in Japan, in part because of the Japanese phrase "Kitto Katsu" which translates to "You will surely win!" They've become a popular good luck charm for parents to give to students during exams.
• Finally, there are a huge variety of Kit Kat flavors, none of which are available in the U.S. Here are some examples: Mint, Orange, Caramel, Capuccino, Apple, Hazelnut, Banana, Strawberry, Green Tea, Passion Fruit, and Lemon Cheesecake.

Fast forward to last weekend, and my package of international Nestle Kit Kats had arrived. I had been eagerly awaiting them all week, and I'd read a number reviews praising how much better Nestle Kit Kats were than the U.S. version. I opened a pack, broke off a piece, and took a bite.

And it was a disappointment. "It's just a Kit Kat," I said to Wendy. I'd read so much about them, about how people "would never eat another U.S. Kit Kat again" after tasting the Nestle version, that my expectations had risen too high. My life did not change after that one bite.

So, I took a few more bites, then ate another piece, finished the package, and finally decided that they are actually pretty good. Probably better than most U.S. candy bars. The chocolate is definitely much better. And now, after having sampled... numerous... packages, I have to say that they are delicious and are indeed superior to the U.S. version.

Finally, if you would like to try these Nestle Kit Kats for yourself, now is the time of year to do so. The Amazon page states "Customer takes responsibility for melted chocolate (happens mostly during summer months)".

P.S. Wendy's reaction after her first bite: "Oh, that's good!"

The Legend of Tiny Gallon!

After one of the craziest Christmases in recent memory (see last post), we enjoyed a remarkably peaceful New Year's Eve by staying home. The highlight of the evening for me was:

1. Finding out OU has a basketball player named Tiny Gallon.
   
2. Watching Tiny Gallon do this:

There was a 50-minute delay while they brought in and set up a new basketball goal. Thus, the last game of the decade turned into the first game of the new decade. OU lost badly, but provided the most interesting highlight by far.

Also, props to the OU football team who, earlier in the day, won its bowl game (finally!) against a tough Stanford team.

To complete the OU-sports theme, I'll leave you with this quote from ESPN Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin, regarding Alabama's recent victory over Texas:

A victory would have made Texas the favorite for team of the decade in the Big 12. A pair of national championships would have been hard to argue with.

But now, Oklahoma's six Big 12 championships and one national title trumps the Longhorns' two Big 12 titles and one national championship in 2005.

Catching Up, Part 3: We Fought Christmas, and Christmas Nearly Won

Warning: this is a very long post! And we have no photos! You can check out Cory's post here for his take on Christmas, as well as some pictures.

We had tickets to fly to Tulsa on Christmas Eve, Thursday, at about noon. The warnings started Sunday, which was the same day I came down with a cold. Major winter storm coming Wednesday and Thursday! Ice! Sleet! Snow! If you value your lives, flee now! (Okay, maybe not that last part, but pretty close.) We kept an eye on the weather, and kept hoping maybe the forecast would change and it would get here by Tuesday, or hold off until Thursday night, but it stayed stubbornly fixed on Wednesday into Thursday. By Tuesday, they were saying we'd get a quarter-inch of ice on Wednesday, starting about noon, and then the snow would start that night. We were not feeling real hopeful for our chances of getting out of Chicago.

It kept snowing that week - just a bit every day, enough to make getting around kind of a pain. Wednesday morning, when I went to work, I checked the weather again and found the forecast for us unchanged. But the weather for Tulsa now said Major winter storm coming! Ice! Sleet! 7-12 inches of snow! If you value your lives, flee now! Luckily, one of my coworkers told me that the airlines were letting people change flights for no fee if they could get out of town ahead of the storm. I called Randy (who hadn't left for work yet), and he immediately called the reservation line while I looked up possible flights for us.

Luckily, we were able to switch our 11:35 a.m. Thursday flight to an 8:30 p.m. Wednesday flight. "Go to the airport now!" my coworkers said. "Otherwise you'll never get out of here! If you value your lives, flee now!" So I headed home, we packed super fast, and left for the airport by about 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday the 23rd. It started sleeting on our way to the airport, and it took us about an hour and forty-five minutes to get there. We got checked in and just for the heck of it, put our names on the stand-by list for the 4:30 flight. Unbeknownst to us (at that point), the 11:35 a.m. flight had been cancelled and there was no way we were going to get on the 4:30 flight.

So we sat down, and we waited, and I blew my nose every two minutes. Every flight we saw had a huge stand-by list, including ours. We waited more, and I tried to use my hand sanitizer as ostentatiously as possible, to avoid a revolt from my fellow passengers. We watched the sleet change to snow. It would have been beautiful had we not been trying to fly out - the flakes were huge, probably the biggest I've ever seen. We waited more, and I tried not to wheeze too audibly. Our gate changed probably 6 or 8 times. At one point, we were all sitting at G8 when a guy up at the agent counter turned around and yelled out, "Hey, it's H16 now!" Everyone sighed, gathered their bags, and shuffled off together. We were right behind a serviceman in uniform, who we'd seen at 3 of our previous gates, at least. "I've walked more today than I did during basic training," he said. I glanced over at a flight status monitor on our way over to H16 - and saw the gate change to H18. All we could do at that point was laugh.

Finally, at 9:30, an hour after we should have taken off, they announced that we could begin boarding and we both breathed a huge sigh of relief that we would not be spending the night at the airport. We had to wait for de-icing and finally took off a little after 10 p.m. Our flight was uneventful, except that we had to wait to deplane in Tulsa. Our captain came on the intercom to announce that due to the late hour, there was only one ground crew working and we'd have to wait our turn until they could get to us. I guess it could have been worse - after we made it into the airport at about 12:30, we heard an announcement: "Those of you waiting for the Denver flight, the new estimated arrival time is 2:30 a.m."

Joy and Cory had stayed up late to come get us (thank you!), and we made it back to Randy's parents house outside of Spavinaw at about 2 a.m. We were both starving, and after a quick sandwich, we all went to bed at about 3 a.m. It was a very long day.

It started sleeting by about 2 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and by about 2:30, the power was out. Because the house has an electric well pump, the lack of power also means no water. "Oh, that's a bad sign," Randy's dad said. "The power should not have gone out this early into the storm." We made the best of it, lighting candles and eating a late lunch by kerosene lamp. We decided to open our presents then, and called Randy's uncle to tell him he better head out from Tulsa ASAP if he was going to make it. (We, uh, may have also asked him to bring wine when he came. I think we all felt that we could maybe face a powerless Christmas a little bit better if we were all just a little bit, um, more relaxed, let's say.)

After about 4 hours, we were done opening presents, we had moved on to card games by candlelight, and Randy's uncle still hadn't arrived. Then the power came back on! We all cheered, and there was a literal sprint to plug in our cell phones, DS lites, and other electric devices, just in case the power went out again. At about that point, it started snowing, and wow, did it snow. After another hour or so, we heard from Randy's uncle - it had taken him nearly two hours to get to the outskirts of Tulsa, where he discovered what we had just seen on the internet - the governor of Oklahoma had declared all state highways, turnpikes and interstates closed. So he turned around and headed the nearly two hours back home.

Meanwhile, the snow kept falling. By the time it was done Christmas morning, there were about 7 inches at Randy's parents' house and in Tulsa, and Oklahoma City had gotten about 14 inches - more than it had ever gotten before!

It should be noted that Oklahoma does not get much snow. They just do not have the manpower or equipment to deal with a big snowfall like that. Joy and Cory had a flight out of the Tulsa airport at about 8 a.m. on December 26, and after some discussion, they decided that they really better head in to town the afternoon before, because they had no idea how long it would take, and so that they could make at least part of the drive before it got dark. So we quickly ate Christmas dinner and they packed up and piled into Randy's dad's truck. They took off, with Randy's dad at the wheel, moving very slowly and carefully. Nearly 3 hours later, they called to say they had made it to the hotel and that the roads were completely snow-packed.

That night, Randy, his mom and I played a game of Pandemic, which Randy got for Christmas. It's a really fun game, and we enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a little prophetic, and not in a good way. By that evening, Randy and his mom had both come down with the stomach flu and were vomiting.

The next day, Randy's dad made his slow, careful way back home. We heard from Joy that they had made it back to Phoenix before Randy's dad managed to drive back from Tulsa! Neither Randy nor his mom was really feeling any better. They both spent most of the day in bed. Meanwhile, I was checking the weather for our return on the 27th, and seeing that McHenry was supposed to be getting 6-10 inches of snow on the 26th. The only good news was that it looked like it was supposed to be done by the 27th.

The morning of the 27th, Randy (still not feeling good, but not eating anything so he would have nothing to throw up), his dad and I left for the airport. Our flight left at 2 p.m., and we decided that just to be on the safe side, we'd leave by 9 a.m. We headed (very slowly) out on to the icy, completely snow-packed roads. "Wow," Randy's dad said. "The roads are much better than they were the other day!" Luckily, by the time we made it to the turnpike (about halfway there), the roads actually were much better. Although one lane of the road was still completely covered in snow, the other lane was pretty much clear, although not totally. It took us about 2 hours, so we were plenty early for our flight, but we figured that was better than being late.

Once again, our flight was delayed, but only by about an hour. After a slightly bumpy flight back, we retrieved our car from the extended parking lot and headed home. My only concern at that point was how we were going to get our car up the driveway with all the snow. (We live in the pink area, right around the "d" in Woodstock.) Thankfully, a kind neighbor had come over with his snowblower while we were gone - there was an inch or two on the driveway still, but we didn't have to go out and shovel that night.

So! That was our Christmas. How was yours?

Catching Up, Part 2: Abby and Matt got married!

In November, Abby and Matt got married!


The wedding was held at the VA Chapel in Leavenworth, and everything went really well. Abby and Matt both looked great, and were very happy.

We were a pretty good-looking wedding party, if I do say so myself.

I had kind of forgotten how much work weddings are when you are not the one getting married. Not that it's not a lot of work to be the bride (or groom), but no one expects the bride to pin corsages on the groomsmen, make sure the ushers are in place, or track down her own safety pin a few minutes before the ceremony begins. Not that I'm complaining - please note that Abby did all these things (and more!) for me at my wedding, too.

The reception was a lot of fun, with very tasty food.


Now that Abby and I are both married to sons of preacher men, you can probably guess which song it is that we're dancing to here.


After the wedding, Abby and Matt headed off for a Caribbean cruise, and Randy and I headed down to Wichita to spend Thanksgiving with my parents and grandparents. We had a nice, low-key time, which I think we all appreciated after the wedding. We didn't do all that much while we were there, although Randy and I ventured into Hutchinson at one point. Since we're not all that familiar with the area, my grandpa let us take the bossy lady along for the drive. She didn't let us down, and we navigated there and back with ease.

We both had a good time hanging out with all the relatives and Matt and Abby's friends, but I think we were both very glad to be home, too. We've done much more traveling than usual this year, which of course means we've run into more travel problems than usual this year.

Unfortunately, our pleasure at being home and being done with traveling would turn out to be short-lived...(cue ominous music!) Tune in tomorrow for part 3 of Catching Up!

Catching Up, Part 1

There are several posts we've been meaning to make over the last couple of months. We're almost to the end of the year now, so I think we should hurry up and get them posted before 2010. This is part one of our catching up: my birthday trip to Mackinac Island.


I turned 30 this year, and Randy surprised me with a trip to Mackinac Island. It's about an 8-hour drive from McHenry whichever way you go, so we decided to drive there by going south, around the bottom of Lake Michigan, and come home from the north, through Wisconsin. Our trip started off on a pretty promising note when we checked into our hotel Saturday night (still on the mainland of Michigan) and discovered that Washington had defeated USC.

Sunday (my birthday), we caught the ferry over to Mackinac Island. They don't allow motorized vehicles on the island, so the main methods of getting around (other than walking) are by horse and by bike.

We did both! We started out by taking a tour of the island by horse-drawn carriage. The town is very picturesque, and our tour guide told us about several interesting historical facts. (Bonus interesting fact: look at the link to see where Dr. Beaumont is buried!) After seeing the town, we headed into the interior of the island. Although the coastline of the island is very flat, it gets extremely hilly as soon as you turn inland. I was impressed the horses were able to pull our tour group of about 20 people up the hill with only a few short rests.


It was very pretty, and the weather was perfect. After our tour, we rented bikes and rode around the island. There's a highway that goes all the way around the edge of the island - it's about 8 miles in circumference. It was really, really pleasant to be able to ride without worrying about cars on the roads!


Our second day on the island was not quite as perfect - we still had a nice time, but it was chillier and kind of drizzling for a lot of the morning. We went up to Fort Mackinac and rode bikes again. We managed to get slightly lost on a tour of the island's interior roads, and ended up having to cut across a golf course twice in order to get unlost. I was kind of outraged to see a (non-horse drawn!) golf cart at one point.

We had a great time and I would definitely recommend the trip. I don't think I can overstate just how gorgeous everything was!


Tune in tomorrow for Catching Up, Part 2!

Post #99

It's a little distracting trying to type this while Wendy plays Mario Kart, but here goes:

Happy Birthday, Wendy

We celebrated Wendy's birthday this year with a trip to Mackinac Island. If you're not familiar with it, it's in Lake Huron between Lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, and there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island. Horses, hiking, and bicycling are the only options once you're there. It's a very popular tourist spot, but we managed to avoid the crowds by going during the week, and towards the end of tourist season. We'll post some pictures and more details in a later post, but for now I'll just say that it was way more fun than I thought it would be, and if you enjoy riding a bike, the place is heaven.

Happy Birthday, Car

My car turned 14 years old this month. It was purchased in October of 1995. "You've had your car longer than you've known me!" Wendy pointed out. It's been a pretty good car overall (a Chevy Cavalier). These days it doesn't have to do much except get me to work and back.

Booksale books

There was another employee book sale at work recently. I got 49 books total. Here are some of the more notable finds:

• M is for Magic and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
• Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origin of the Internet
• Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
• The Saga of Solomon Kane
• Batman: Year One
• Statistics II for Dummies
• Spinning Flight: Dynamics of Frisbees, Boomerangs, Samaras, and Skipping Stones

Nerds 'R Us

Speaking of books, we measured the length of all our books on bookshelves. It came out to 75.8 feet (910 inches), and, since we've cataloged them with librarything.com, we know there are just over 900 books, which works out to about an inch per book. Why did we do that? Because of this.

Noisy Frame

We bought a new bed a while back (mattress, box spring, and frame), and while the mattress is really nice, the frame was a disappointment. Any time you moved slightly or rolled over, it made a metal squeaking sound that would often wake you up. It felt like it just needed to be tightened, but the frame was designed to not have any screws, so there was nothing to tighten. We took it back, thinking it might be defective, and got another one, but it had the same problem. As usual, Google came to the rescue: someone online recommended putting rubber washers between the loose frame parts, and that worked perfectly. Thank you Google and anonymous internet person!

And finally...

Mario Kart is pretty cool.

The Sweet Stench of Victory!

The SpongeBob SquarePants Marathon

A few weekends ago Nickelodeon aired a 50-hour(!) SpongeBob Marathon, culminating in 10 brand new episodes. Our Tivo nearly died from exhaustion. It pulled through, though, and we've been watching new episodes whenever we have some free time. Congratulations, Mr. SquarePants, on your 10-year anniversary!

Wii Sports Resort

I got Wii Sports Resort for my birthday, along with new MotionPlus controllers that enhance the accuracy of the remotes. It is lots of fun! The jet-skiing game is far and away my favorite; it makes me want to try jet-skiing for real. The flight simulator, bicycling, and swordplay are very cool as well. One neat feature is that the game will import characters created by other people, and they'll show up as your opponent, or as fans in the background. At one point Wendy was playing the Air Sports game and realized she was skydiving with Barack Obama!

New carpet

We got new carpet in the upstairs bedrooms last month, after a few setbacks. We originally ordered from Home Depot, and they said it would be installed in 5-7 days. So we spent all of Memorial Day Weekend painting all 3 bedrooms (and ceilings) in anticipation. But the date got pushed back again and again and again, much to our frustration, and finally was going to be 2 months from the time we placed the order. So we canceled it and went to Flooring Discount Warehouse. They had similar carpet for about the same price, and about a week later (on July 4th), they came out and installed it. We are quite pleased with the new carpet and with the new paint in our bedrooms.

Furniture shopping

We devoted an entire weekend last month to furniture shopping, mostly for bedroom furniture. Our first stop was Plunkett Furniture in Vernon Hills, because we heard on the radio they were going out of business. We got there to find they had already closed down. Bummer! We couldn't believe how quickly it happened. It turned out they had other locations in Chicagoland that were still in the going-out-of-business phase, so we visited one the next day, but the "liquidation" prices were still way out of our budget. Then we visited Georgetown Furniture in Antioch (which is where we bought our sofa and loveseat), only to find that they, too, were going out of business. Bummer again! All they had left were a few mattresses and a rummage sale. At this point we weren't feeling so great about the state of the economy. We also hit a couple of places in Rockford, and one place in southern Wisconsin (Steinhafel's Furniture). We saw a few promising things, but nothing great.

Finally, a coworker recommended Crest Furniture in Arlington Heights, and man, it felt like we hit the jackpot. The sales guy took us on a whirlwind tour of all the major furniture brands, showed us the difference in quality between them, and explained the pros and cons of each. Finally he gave us stacks of catalogs to look through, and we got a much better sense of what we want. We have yet to purchase anything, but we left with much more confidence in our ability to make a decision. Thanks, Crest dude!

Selling on Craigslist

We had to move everything out of the bedrooms for our carpet installation, and the futon proved to be the biggest, heaviest, and most unwieldy thing of all. After struggling to rotate it vertically (without hitting the ceiling fan), angle it through the narrow doorway (with barely an inch to spare), line it up with the stairs (without hitting another ceiling fan), we got it halfway down the stairs when we set it down precariously for a break, and Wendy, exhausted, said "Let's sell this f***er". Being quick to recognize good, common-sense ideas, I agreed. Thus, we put it and a computer desk up for sale on craigslist.

The computer desk went first, after about a week, but no one seemed interested in the futon. This basically made our living room unusable, as it was crammed full with a futon, sofa, loveseat, coffee table, and piano. We lowered the price, which got a few people interested, but started to despair when still no one bought it. It felt as if our house was in a permanent state of disrepair. The posting expired several times, I kept reposting, lowered the price again, and finally, this morning -- hallelujah! -- we sold it! Our living room is once again back to its normal state.

To mark the occasion we ate a celebratory pizza lunch and watched more new SpongeBob episodes!

Wild Kingdom

Spring has officially come a close, astronomically speaking. Here are some noteworthy events from the season past:

We were eating dinner one evening, looking out the bay window, when a small fox trotted out from the side of our house. We'd seen him once or twice before, always disappearing around the front of our neighbor's house. This time he stuck his head into the neighbor's wood pile and came out with a big egg in his mouth. He took it to the opposite end of our yard, buried it among some flowers, and went right back to the wood pile for another egg. This one he buried in the yard across the street and then came back for egg number 3, which went in a different neighbor's yard. He went back and forth, burying eggs in various yards (I think we wound up with 3 in our yard). We counted 10 eggs in all. At this point Wendy connected a few dots and remembered we always see a duck with about 10 ducklings in the pond each year. Probably not this year, we thought! It turns out we did still see a mama duck with 9 or 10 ducklings this year, so who knows if they were duck eggs the fox found.

Another annual event we always see is the migration of a giant turtle across our yard. Apparently she lays eggs in a neighbor's back yard (not one of the same ones the fox buried eggs in), and then in a painstakingly slow process, migrates back to the pond, always across our yard. And somehow we manage to see her every spring. The neighbor always comes out when she gets close to the road and shepherds her across. This year I shot some action-packed, jaw-dropping video of the event:

Finally, we bought some patio furniture a few days ago, and today spent part of the afternoon sitting out on our deck reading (and playing Nintendo DS). This is something we never considered doing with our old deck, so I take it as a positive sign that our home improvement projects are headed in the right direction.

I Heart Weather Data

Anytime we have interesting weather I love to pore over the data my weather station is collecting. The past two days have given me lots of chances to do just that.

On Friday we recorded our first 80 degree high of the year (84.4, to be exact):

The WGN Weather Blog reported it had been over six months since we last saw temperatures that high. Now that I've recorded about 10 months of weather data via WeatherUnderground, I pulled up a chart of temps for the last 6 months:

A quick scan verified that stat. Early October (the 12th, the be exact) was the last time temps were as high they were on Friday. The chart also reminded me just how cold it got in mid-January!

And then Saturday's weather was even more interesting. Here's a chart of temps:

We had two big temperature drops during the day: a 15-degree drop from 12:30 to 1:30, and a 10 degree drop between 4 and 5. These drops coincided, as you might imagine, with a change in wind. The first temperature drop happened right as the wind shifted suddenly from the SW to the NE:

While the second drop occurred right when the wind picked up again, after having died down for a couple of hours:

And, finally, we got about half an inch of rain over the afternoon and evening:


Wendy and I spent the first half of Saturday working in the yard, removing dead bushes, transplanting hostas, and pulling up weeds, so we got to experience the 15 degree temperature drop firsthand. Eventually the rain, and our stomachs crying out for lunch, forced us indoors.

After the 10 degree temperature drop in late afternoon we were forced to close all the doors and windows, because it was just cold with the wind blowing through our house.

Springtime in Chicago

Channeling the Cold

For the record, it was -22 degrees at our house this morning. Yesterday the high was -2. My favorite weather site, the WGN Weather Blog, has had all kinds of fun weather stats lately:

• Yesterday was the first day in 13 years that the high did not break zero in Chicago.
• It was colder in Chicago yesterday than it was at the North Pole (8 degrees).
• As of January 12th, we've already received a full winter's worth of snow (and we're only halfway through the meteorological winter).

We also learned that schools around here do indeed close due to the cold. Most schools were closed yesterday and today thanks to extreme wind chills of -40.

On an unrelated note, I've discovered a whole batch of cable channels that I didn't know we got. My favorites so far are Toon Disney and History International. Toon Disney has all kinds of cool animated shows like Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, and The Jackie Chan Adventures. It's being re-branded next month as Disney XD, which will basically be "Disney for boys," while the Disney Channel will remain "Disney for girls". Hopefully they'll keep all the animated comic book fun.

History International has had some interesting shows, too, ranging from the German Autobahn, to what our society learned from the Victorians and the Tudors, to a documentary called "How William Shatner Changed the World" hosted, of course, by William Shatner.