Isaac's Robot Party Plans: Decorations

Mom's ideas for decorations to show to Isaac and Denise. I also found a new online electronics store for modification parts on our toothbrush robot.

Isaac LOVES You!

Isaac LOVES You!
Originally uploaded by mhughen.

Isaac's flag football team celebrates their second place finish in the league. And he loves you all.

NCAA Basketball Test link

Click Here

Weekend Project: Paper Circuitry

Interesting project, should teach a little about electric circuits, combining origami and electronics.

DIY Project Mom Would Approve Of

This site says, "if its worth doing, its worth doing with power tools." A scrub brush made to fit the drill.

Arthur C. Clark Quote of the Day

In memory of science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark, here's the quote of the day.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

On a good day at work, I find myself striving for this magic. After an epiphany yesterday, I realized again that the magic often hides in simplicity. However, simplicity does not come without a price, and is often the most difficult concept to grasp (sounds like Zen, doesn't it).

Barack Obama's Speech on Race

Here is a link to Obama's speech addressing racial issues in America.

While it is inevitably political, it is amazing to hear a presidential candidate address these issues directly. During the speech, he both reprimands Reverend Wright's inflammatory comments, and embraces the man whom he obviously respects.

It will be interesting to see the commentary.

Scaled Down Ballistics Set Up

Given our recent experiments with ballistics, combined with a love of retrieving dogs, this little implementation caught my eye.

We're still considering a tennis ball cannon, because Leo loved to chase the potatos. However, need to go back to Home Depot to refine the design.

Possible Weekend Projects: Racing and Robots

Her's an interesting project, Thunderboat racing behind your bike. At first it looked like most of the fun was in painting the boat, until I read to the part about adding a nail in the tail for a stream of sparks as you go around. Sparks and a demolition racing course, who could ask for more?

The second is another robot experiement, this time Linux style. We would need to install Unbutu on our machine first. However, this device does have a wireless input from the computer.

Doing Our Part to Save the Economy

Yea! A new dining room table, chairs, and bench, along with a new painting. Now we're ready for some serious domino/Pokemon tournaments.

Have a Happy Weekend!

Google the Moon

Here's a cool google map of the moon. It shows the various landing spots of the Apollo missions.

Guess some would say this too is part of the conspiracy. However, looks like we'll have more landing places soon!

National Pi Day

I thought I would write this one, so Gammy would have fun explaining it to the campers.

3/14 is National Pi Day, in fact to celebrate correctly, you must begin at 1:59 (that is 3.14159).

Pi is a mathmatical constant which describes the ratio of a circle's circumference and its diameter or Pi = circumference/diameter.

Pi is also a special mathmatical expression because it's decimal representation is irrational, that is, it never repeats or ends.

The NY Times article suggests celebrating with a Pi-ku (3-1-4 instead of 5-7-5).

Why is pi
Square
As pie is round?

Speed Racer Trailer

Even Chim Chim and Trixie

Microcontroller For the Folk

Open source microcontroller. Guess we might have to learn how to do this, in order to build even better robots.

How Old is the Universe?

Here's a scientific answer to the question. A NASA Explorer mission called WMAP, has contructed data which estimates the age of the universe at 13.73 billion years old (plus or minus .12 billion years).

Pneumatic Potato Cannon Project

Great Fun! And we didn't break any windows (but we came close).

Our pneumatic potato cannon was a 10 foot PVC pipe cut in half. We put a bicycle valve in one end to add the air from a bike pump, and a valve half way to launch the potatos.

As you can see in the picture set, we broke the fence on our first test in the backyard, so we moved our next testing to the field around the corner from our house. Our longest shot with the wind, and 80 psi was 120 yards.

Conclusions:

• next iteration will have a shorter air collection tank (way too much work to fill a 5 foot, 2 inch PVC pipe, with a hand bicycle pump)
• about 80 psi shoots the potato about 100 yards, without blowing out the cannon.
• Its difficult to hand pump 80 psi.
• The electric pump works better, but there's too many things to break in our cul-de-sac.
• the potato flys better when packed in pretty tight, and pushed down with a plunger
• Finally, kids (and dogs) love to see potatos flying through the air at high velocities.

Many thanks to our lovely camera person, who doesn't appear in the pictures.

Oh My, Let's Build a Potato Cannon

There are many aerosol cannons out there, but this one seems a little safer using a pneumatic firing device. Sounds like another good weekend project.

Zen Quote of the Day

Here's an interesting quote of the day for our aspiring students.

There are grammatical errors even in his silence. Stanislaw J. Lec

Toothbrush Robot

Here's Isaac and my first experiment with building robots. We used the motor from an old PS2 controler, and a 3V watch battery. You will notice that, in the final iteration, we constructed a little errector set box to the setup. Also our first experiment with You Tube.

IronMan Movie Trailer

Complete with a Black Sabbath tune. I'm not always sure about Ozzie, but he sounds cool as back ground to a comic book hero.

Styrofoam-Plate Speaker

Hi-Fidelity homemade loud speaker. It should go good with the amp.

Making a Tiny Robot

I think this will be our first project. A tiny robot, made with the head of a tooth brush.

I'm using the blog as a favorites folder, for potential fun with Isaac and Denise. This is one central location I can save between work and home.

Crackerbox Amp

Great stuff on the MAKE subscription. Isaac and I have to give this one a try with his little guitar. A homemade amp.

Online Gaming

Must remeber to show Isaac this cool new gaming site. Someone wrote a Nintendo emulator to their classic 8-bit games. You can now play them online with some help from Java.

Update: Homemade Metal Detector

Turns out the guys from MAKE, think this simple metal detector video is a fake. The reasoning is fairly complicated, anybody know an electrical engineer?

Seems like the calculator's internal clock (the only thing in the device which would produce a frequency) oscillates at about 450 kHz, where the radio is tuned to broadcast 1610 kHz. The engineers think the two devices would rarely produce a reliable Radio Frequency Interference (RFI).

Even proving the video a fake would make a good science project.

Historical Documents Research

One of my new projects is creating a site to archive historical documents of the Harris County Court. While doing research for the possible user interface designs on such a web site, I found this document on the national archives, and thought it might be interesting.

Apparently, Elvis became interested in joining the war on drugs in America. He delivered this letter personally to president Nixon in hopes becoming a federal agent. While this is just the first page of the document, it seems like there is more here.

Homemade Metal Detector

Isaac was interested in getting a metal detector after seeing some guy at the basket court with one. I found this article describing how to make your own with a radio and a calculator.

On this MAKE blog, they discuss the project in greater detail, creating your own BFO (beat frequency oscillator). Sounds like a good science fair project.

SM3 Launch Video

Not sure about the background music, something about waking up the beast. However, this is a video showing some slow motion shots of an SM3 missle being fired. While this missle was not designed to shoot down potentially dangerous satellites, it best use of this powerful technology I can think of.

Overnight Space News

Quite a bit going on in space last night, I suppose this is not at all unusual, however, I have pictures this time. At 2226 EST the USS Lake Erie fired a modified tacticle missle and hit a dying satellite traveling at over 17,000 mph at an altitude of 133 nautical miles. Now that is certainly a good shot.

The picture shows another good shot, the stages of the lunar eclipse last night. Unfortunately, it was raining in Houston, but there are great pictures in Flickr.

Update: Check out this video of the USS Lake Erie launch. the audio is a little sparse but amazing video.

Hey Jude - Like You've Never Heard It Before

Interesting New FM Widget

Check it out on the left <-----------. Interested to see if it works for you guys.

Total Lunar Eclipse - February 20

In case the kids were looking for an excuse to stay up late tomorrow night, there's meant to be a total lunar eclipse beginning at 8:43 PM EST until 12:30 AM EST. Since my lovely wife is out of town this week, maybe I can talk Leo into staying up late with me, and taking pictures.

NASA has a great reference to the eclipse.

Information Technology

An interesting article from the New York Times blog regarding future engineering challenges, describes medicine as an information technology. They also comment that, once we move away from fossil fuels, energy will become an information technology.

This certainly made me rethink my definition of the phrase, "information technology." Here's a wikipedia's definition. Once you get past a simple concept of computer software and hardware; and expand into networks (nueral, social, data) and data management. The new definitions from the engineers begin to make more sense.

Speaking of wikipedia and a child's use of information technology, this was the main resource for Isaac's recent research assignment on the platypus. I think he also referenced an encyclopedia just for old time's sake.

Isaac's First Domino Win

IsaacDominoWin
Originally uploaded by mhughen.

We thought we would record Isaac's first unassisted domino win. We even kept the score card.

I thought I was going to catch him in the last game, but he scored a 35 on one play. Watch out Grandma!

Baby You Save Me - Happy Valentine's Day Lover

Here are the chords to our wedding song, I cry everytime I hear it because of how lucky I am.

I know I don't tell you nearly enough
I couldn't live one day without your love

Kenny Chesney

New Subscription to Consider: Page 99 Test

The author of this blog has an interesting theory,

Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be
revealed to you." --Ford Madox Ford

It certainly is interesting to read the author analyzing there own work this way. Also seems a good method to promote more diverse reading.

Sorry, I haven't posted in a while, busy at the new job learning. Hopefully I can get some pictures up soon.

Family Affair YouTube Example

Here's the link you posted embeded into your blog

First Grade 2007

IsaacFirstGrade2007
Originally uploaded by mhughen.

Finally got around to scanning this. Warning, you may see this picture later this Christmas.

Notice the missing teeth on the bottom row.

Merry Star Wars Christmas

How cool would this be? Even more fun than skateboarding downhill. We have to show you this Christian.

Happy Birthday Christian

Sorry we could make your party yesterday, but Happy Birthday Christian. We hope you had a spectacular time.

We all love you, and I have a love quote for you this morning.

To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides
David Viscott

A Song For My Love

Check out this website. All unsigned artists. I love this song when the Beach Boys sing it, reminds me of my love.

http://www.thesixtyone.com/PetraHaden/collection/collection_item/736/

Here's the video of the Beach Boys singing it.

The Moment of Victory

I have experienced this myself in rugby, and other things. As we've heard, it is the journey, not the destination where all the fun is.

Speaking of journeys, we visited Brazos Bend State Park this weekend. Isaac pet snakes (Gammy loved hearing of that, especially the Mexican Milk snake who looked remarkably similar to a Coral snake), spiders, and even baby alligators. In fact we saw about 5 adult alligators running around (well actually sleeping) in the park. We can't wait to take you there.

The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing
else. Martina Navratilova

Quote of the Day

Thank you Martin Luther King Jr., somedays I really need this one. Hate is a very strong word isn't it?

Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.

Martin Luther King Jr.

RE < C Computer Energy Consumption

Have you seen this expression, REnew energy initiative from Google, to use renewable resources to power their applications.

I've preached this to my group frequently, a processor costs more in energy costs than initial purchase costs. However, I had not considered the long term effect of large applications like Second Life. According to this article, a Second Life avatar consumes more energy than an average real Brazilian person.

While I've heard you can do a job interview over Second Life, I doubt they have virtual wind farms, like we have here in Texas.

Thanksgiving Communism and China

Getting the family together always seems to have a great affect of stirring the intellectual pot. I love it.

My question, in after dinner discussions, was "how strained is the adoption relationship between the U.S. a democracy and China a communist state." One of our dinner guests suggested that China is, in fact, a republic; suggesting it's name The People's Republic of China. Unfortunately, due to my own lack of research on the subject, I could not argue this suggestion.

While looking for this on the web it seems, despite its name, The People's Republic of China, is in fact a communist state. Thier leader, Hu Jintao while holding one democratic title of President of the People's Republic of China, is also the General Secratary of the Communist Party of China. In fact, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has been the constitutionally gauranteed rulers of China since Mao Zedong.

It seems, while Mao initially baised the CPC on Marxism-Leninism principals, currently, the Chinese economic practice is described as a socialist market economy. This economic principal, while socialist, the "state retained ownership of large enterprises, it does not use this ownership to intervene to change prices which are set by the market."

Of course this just scratches the surface on an interesting after dinner conversation. Love to hear any feedback. Thanks again family for the always stimulating time.

Happy Thanksgiving Family

We are so thankful for our family. I found this quote today

What a beautiful, sunny morning. It makes you happy to be alive, doesn't it? We can't let the sun outshine us! We have to beam, too!
Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata

Shine on Family, we love you

Baby You Save Me

You have to check this site out .

Here's the song that Denise and I danced to in our wedding.


I can't listen to this song without cracking up, I'm so lucky. Better head home and see my lover. Manana

Further With the Beautiful Boy Song

Found this new web site that let's you play songs in your web site.

Here's Celine's version


And John Lenon


And Something a little different

Life Without TV

I must admit, we definately watch TV, but this list is awesome. Another entry from Michael's No Impact Man suggestion. My favorite is,

We ride aimlessly around on the No Impact Mobile (our tricycle with a back seat
for Isabella), seeing what we can see ...

Star Wars, Star Trek, Robots, and Ninjas

I love these cool YouTube viewers. Isaac and Christian will love this one.

Beautiful Boy

Mom called and told me about this song. Here's a video from YouTube. I played the original John Lennon version for Isaac as well.

2007Halloween

2007HalloweenDarthA
Originally uploaded by mhughen.

Pictures of Isaac's Halloween costume. "Come to the dark side Luke, it is your destiny." Did he say 'destiny'

Flying Robots

How easy (or difficult) can it be to build a flying robot. Sounds quite difficult.

MakerFair Austin

Just found out that the MakerFair will be in Austin this weekend. We're trying desprately to miss a game of baseball so we can attend. Looks like a giant do-it-yourself science fair.

How about a catapult competition.

Quick Quote of the Day

"There is…nothing to suggest that mothering cannot be shared by several people."
H. R. Schafferfrom

Isaac Heart

IsaacHeart
Originally uploaded by mhughen.

We're testing a new scanner. Isaac created this piece of art, he calls it, "The Heart Master"
Happy Thursday

Pearland Pictures

Mom and Grandma are helping post this one in the living room. Happy Friday!
Check out the house we are looking at, here's a map.

Green M&M Quote of the Day

Happy Tuesday. I never thought of sharing being vulnerable, but it makes sense.

Sort of like this concept that Denise and I learned about the power of admiting fault in a customer service transaction. Even if it's not necessarily your company's fault, saying I'm sorry can completely disarm an otherwise volitle situation.

Share your M&Ms. There are bags and bags of them all over the place. If
you give them one of yours, even one of the green ones, you will not be lacking.
Honust Injun. Now apply this to Time, Concern, Touch, Interest and Being
Vulnerable. Hugh Elliott

Disk Golf Adventure

Who knew there where so many cool things on the disk golf course. Well we knew, but these are the first pictures. Sorry no snakes this time, but we'll try to keep the camera with us more often.

Isaac's First Lost Tooth

Isaac's first tooth out. It reportedly happened on June 13, 2007. YEAH!

Christian's Math (Data) Project

I received a call from Christian this afternoon with a survey regarding my favorite color. Analysing data, and building web applications to contain data is a significant part of my work day. In fact, I just recently architected a survey application for Denise's old team at work.

Good work Christian, take a look at your charts. I have suggestions for even better data (break down your data even further and guess the age and sex of each person that you surveyed, that way we can see if a person's age or sex has an affect on their color preference).

Snake Oil Salesman

HughesSnake
Originally uploaded by mhughen.

This man could truly sell anything. If he is able to get Gammy and Denise to the property after sending this picture, he should give classes.

Sweet snake though, Isaac and I are definately in.

Acapella Amazing

Wow, check this out, totally incredible.

Wiki Conversation

Ever notice how cyclical things are if you take the time to notice? We found this quote from the founder of Wikipedia on our Starbucks cup this morning.

"Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free
access to the sum of all human knowledge. Wikis gives us a place where everyone
who is kind, thoughtful and intelligent can come join us in building a better
and more rational world." - Jimmy Wales -Founder of Wikipedia and
Wikia.com

First Pics: Isaac's Kindergarten Graduation

Just to demonstrate the speed of technology, here are some pics of Isaac before his graduation ceremony. We're headed out the door for the festivities. Happy Friday!

The Lifebox, The Seashell, and the Soul

I just leafed through the last chapter in Rudy Rucker's book. While each chapter has a dizzying array of advanced mathematics (which I promptly skipped over for the most part) to argue his "the universe is a gnarly computation" theory (universal automatism), the author comes to a very real and understandable conclusion.

Rudy attempts to answer, "the meaning of life" question using this same theory. He suggests that even human emotions can be described in a computationally rich scale.

• Rage - simple class 1 computation which predictably and simply terminates
• Hatred - class 2 computation looping endlessly and again predictably
• Needy desire to please another -class 3 (random, messy, with no obvious order) computation
• Compassion - a gnarly ever evolving class 4 process

This leads Rudy to explain that the meaning of life is beauty and love.

It seems to me, no matter how complex or simple our explanation is, the ultimate results is always very similar. Compassion, Beauty, Love

Peace!

Interesting Interview with General Dan Mcneil

General McNeil is the current NATO commander in Afghanistan. Although his opinions apparently differ significantly from the outgoing commander British General David Richards, he refuses to give commentary to the interviewer which might be construed as negative toward his ally. Even when pressed by the reporter.

The General also displayed an incredible knowledge of when his expertise stopped, and the policy maker's began. This seems an admiral trait with a man put into such a powerful position.

Birthday Thanks and a Little Surprise

We finally got time to load up the new MP3 player this weekend. What a great player, it even plugs into our car. With such a big drive, we fit the Beattles plus 83 other songs, and only filled it half way.

Oh yes, this and one other surprise. I understand it happened last weekend. Apparently, the tree looked closer to the monkey bars than it appeared in the window.

Birthday Pictures

I've been under a new project, but here is a set of birthday party pictures. Some very good ones of all the kids and adults. I had to show this one of the princess.

Isaac Singing - Each of Us Is a Flower

We were playing with an MP3 player Denise won at the gym, and found it also does recording. After a little research on how to host wav files, I think some of you will certainly appreciate the results.

Austin Trip Spring 2007

Our fun trip to Austin and pictures with the Bluebonnets. The Bluebonnets made us remember how lucky we feel to be Texans.

Isaac's Blue Belt Test

Exciting blue belt test for Isaac's Taekwondo classes. At this rate, he'll be a black belt by 7.

Google Video Element

Another new element. Press a video in the navigation and it will play on the page. Cool!! These are currently Rugby Haka's

New Page Element

Testing a new page element on the left navigation bar. This is a feed to my photo hosting service. Whenever I load new photos, they should appear in this feed bar.

English Professor

I was reading the quote blog, and this one reminded me of an English professor I heard of at West Point.

An English Professor
"I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top."

Coding Philosophy

CodingPhilosophy
Originally uploaded by mhughen.

I found this cartoon blog which covers software development. This one may even be applicable to some who read my blog.

Sunday Mashup Music

I've found many cool toons on the MashupTown.com site, however, some are not very work or child safe. This one is very safe, and even inspirational. You can turn it up with the family huddled around the computer. Isn't this how you guys listen to music these days?

And You Can be My Cowgirl

IsaacCowboy2
Originally uploaded by mhughen.

I Want to be a Cowboy

IsaacCowboy
Originally uploaded by mhughen.

Its rodeo time in Houston

Quiet Day is Better for Reflection

We finally rolled out our new web application, and I can make time for a post.

I was looking at Rudy's latest post, and he brought up the interesting concept of holyzoism (fascinating how his site outlines his novel writing experience. He asks for user input, and discusses various theories for the novel).

Holyzoism is an ancient philosophy that all or some things posses life. This seems to include plants and animals. However, there seems to be a slight difference with the similar philosophy of panpsychism, the concept that all things have a soul(Maybe Michael can discuss the difference on his site).

After watching Al Gore win an Academy Award for his documentary about global warming, it seems if the world could collectively conceive of holyzoism and panpsychism, they might have an easier time fixing global warming.

"This I believe" NPR essays Creating Our Own Happiness

Sent this to my team this morning, good words to remember.

I heard this essay coming in to work this morning, after dropping my son off at school. The essential theme of the essay is covered in the quote, “Try to be happy in the context of the life you are currently living.”

Have a good week.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7572601

Old Pictures But Good Ones

Wedding Pics
Valentines
Christmas
Thanksgiving
Green Belt Test

Sorry I've been buried under a project the last several months. Here is several groups of pictures including some from this evening. Thanks Gammy for the Valentine's day treats.

The Hughen Family Welcomes Home the Philosopher

Sorry it took me so long to say so, but we enthusiastically welcome you home Michael.

The other day, while in Austin, Denise and I were hiking close to Barton Springs, and noticed the philosopher's rock statue. We wish you as much leisure as these philosophers seemed to have, reflecting by the spring.

We welcome you to unlace you're boots for a while, and slip on your sandals. Welcome Home!

It's Great to be in Love

Our first day back to work, and we're still on the love parade!

Just wanted to thank you all for a spectacular weekend. We love you all.

Wedding Poems

I wrote this short poem for Mrs Valdez's scroll she plans to give attendees to the wedding. I wanted you guys to see it as well. I attempted to work in many of the features of the chapel.

Hear the vows of love Ringing!
Ringing through the airy walls of the chapel
Ringing across the bubbling fountain
Ringing down the dusty rocks of the canyon

Hear the great bell of Dulcinea Ringing out Love!
Thank you for helping us put it in motion

We wish you love

Happy Veteran's Day Uncle Michael

We can't wait to see your smiling face, covered in snow cone, back in Austin.

I also heard some commentary this morning on NPR regarding Veteran's or Armistice Day. The most striking statement was regarding the first Armistice Day during WWI.

As the men climbed out of their rat infested fox holes, during the 11th month, on the 11 day, and the 11 hour of 1918, they found their enemy who looked and were think exactly what they were.

Michael we love you.

Isaac Denise Dancing

A great dancing shot at the cowboy wedding. Just look at that spin, and we danced all night.


Take a look at the set.

Happy Birthday Uncle Michael

We love you Uncle Michael and can't wait for your return. I've found several thoughtful quotes for your birthday. Have a great day!

"No wise man ever wished to be younger." Jonathan Swift

"A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror." Ken Keyes Jr.

Here's a wikipedia link for Mr. Keyes, not sure what he's about, but I like the sound of Living Love.

Brothers and Sisters

I found this quote in my news reader this morning.  It reminded of my sister, and I even bet Christian can relate.

Evan Esar

"Consience is what makes a boy tell his mother before his sister does."

powered by performancing firefox

Corny Work Email

Since I've been so busy at work lately, I've had no time to post new blog stories. So, I sent this message to my team this morning, bragging about Isaac. I think you might be interested.

I had an experience last night with my son, Isaac, which I think could provide some relevance to our task here at work.

Each week, the teacher sends home a review of what they are going to cover during the coming week. This week, they are going to learn graphing. Since Maersk has helped me become very efficient at creating graphs, I created an Excel worksheet which we converted to a graph, so that we could discuss the subject.

Our worksheet analyzed people in our family, and their ages. Relative age seems to be a difficult subject in my child's mind, and I was thinking a graph would help his understanding. So we reviewed bar graphs, noting that the older someone was, the taller their line was. Then we converted it to a pie graph, noting that the older person always had the larger piece of pie.

Then came the $60,000 question at the end of our informal lesson, "What if both people have the same sized pie piece." His unaided response brought tears to my eyes, "They would be the same age." A budding critical thinker, I'm so proud.

Driving into work this morning, I thought this lesson gave an analogy to our work here. Not to say that our customers have the technical understanding of a 5 year old; however, we have a great deal of knowledge to share with our customers. Maersk has given us skills which other parts of our organization have little to no understanding. We should take advantage of these skills to provide our customers insight to their own business units, which they never thought possible.

I realize it’s a little corny for Monday morning, but I wanted to brag. Have a good Monday!

Isaac Taekwondo

Isaac competed in his first Taekwondo tournament this last weekend. He won first place in sparring (one on one fighting with only blocks), and second place in the kata or forms.

He was very exciting about competing, and we've had great fun practicing before leaving for school. He taught me to turn my hips when punching, what a great teacher!

Typing Speed

I sent this to my group this afternoon.  i couldn't past level 6, and was interested in what some real typers could do like Mom and Grandma.

Hope you guys have a good weekend.

Isaac's First Day Of Kindergarden

Doesn't he look studious? Very exciting day for Isaac and us. More to follow this evening when we here the beginning adventures.

Chappel Dulcinea

Sorry for lack of input lately, work has been calling.

Here's the chappel we're looking at


I was explaining to Michael, the meaning of Dulcinea in Don Quixote.  I also asked him to hurry home.

Dulcinea is the object of affection for Don Quixote during his quests.  Every deed, every journey and every quest is made in her name.
A web site describes Dulcinea "... in the tradition of the epic journey motif.  For Odysseus his Penelope, Aeneas his Latinia, Dante his Beatrice and Don Quixote his Dulcinea."

Apollo 11

On July 20, 1969, the America's Apollo 11 landed on the moon, making history as the first humans set foot on another world.

Wired Article About Satellite Tracking

I found this article today on Wired magazine.  It describes some satellite watching as an extreme sport?!?

Here's a web site, Heavens Above, which automatically calculates which stellites are visible from any location in the world.

All You Need Is Love

What a disturbing image.  Please teach the girls to play instead of hate.

Israeli girls write messages on a shell at a heavy artillery position near Kiryat Shmona, in northern Israel, next to the Lebanese border, Monday, July 17, 2006.

Lake Belton Vacation Adventure

Here's the photo set, some of the 93 pics are still sideways, but Denise is working on it in her recovery and we thought you would enjoy the show anyway.



We had such a tremendous time, just being with our family.  One thing we didn't get a picture of is the space station.  Seeing the space station three times was incredible, and Isaac has even developed an interest in astronomy because of it (Thank you Mr. Brough). 



The other high point was our fishing expedition.  Who knew catching basketfulls of tiny little fish could be so much fun.  Some of us, Faith, even had a great time catching worms.



Thank you Nancy for getting this all together for us.  What a blast.

Discovery Returns Home

Here's what we were looking for at the Lake.  We actually saw the International Space Station, but this is what we hoped to see.

Space Shuttle Discovery landed on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility at 9:14 a.m. EDT on Monday, July 17. During the nearly 13-day mission, the STS-121 crew tested new equipment and procedures to improve shuttle safety, and delivered supplies and made repairs to the International Space Station.

Isaac The Downhill Master

We toured the Huntsville State Park on the bikes on Friday. Another 7 miles with a twist, huge downhill runs with lots of roots on the trail.

Isaac was nothing less than totally radical. I often found myself with my hands on the brakes, only to look up at him spinning the pedals. All this while hurtling down the slope over huge root steps and cut-backs. It was truely spectacular (including some spectacular crashes, please see helmet Aunt Nancy).


There was also a dam we crossed along the path, I thought Gammy would find this pick of her baby crossing with sure steps interesting.

WHAT A GREAT WEEK! Totally outdoors, at the state, and local parks. We have our copy of Walden Pond on order.