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We went out for some sledding at Mendenhall Glacier. Torsten was more interested in hiking around the (frozen) lake. We found a great rock with a perfectly slanted side for a good slide down so played on that a while. Matt got Torsten’s attention by disappearing down the far side of the rock backwards with his feet up in the air (check out the small gallery of photos from the day for that one!).
Torsten, Carrie, Matt, Suka, and Kita went for a ski on Mendenhall Lake. We got there and the Mendenhall wolf (Romeo, people have named him) was there, looking for some dog playmates. It was a bit strange and also a neat experience. Suka was ready to play chase, but Romeo was a bit big and heavy to want to do so much sprinting. Here the wolf is checking out Torsten and photographer:
We watched the wolf for a while, then Carrie went off for a ski while Torsten and Matt skied then walked around in the snow. The wolf followed Carrie (and the dogs) very closely (wanting to play!). While watching, Matt wondered what he might say to the wolf in that situation “Go home wolf!” doesn’t quite seem right when the wolf is home. Carrie said the wolf was a little too close, so she came back. Here’s the wolf and Kita “shadowing” each other.
Here’s Carrie skiing off towards the glacier. Kita is near her, and the wolf is over to the right.
Check out the whole photo gallery of the afternoon.
This is the same wolf who came to visit us at the John Muir cabin back in 2004 when Torsten was only 5-6 weeks old. (No photos of the wolf, but the gallery of the John Muir trip (Torsten’s first camping trip) is fun to look at. It is hard to believe Torsten was ever that small!)
Torsten’s latest way of being a great help around the house is helping dad shovel the snow in the driveway and on the porch. He’s already graduated up from the avalanche shovel.
Torsten gives dad a hand with grilling up dinner. We’ve been lucky with all the snow this year and are sure enjoying it!
Matt was just about to head out, when the house started rockin’. Then it kept rockin’. Then Matt saw the lights moving and checked–yep, trees outside are moving. Then Matt wondered about going to wake Carrie and Torsten–no need, they just woke up. Then the cabinets and wood TV/computer hutch started creaking. Hmm.
Good morning from Earth, remember me down here? A magnitude 5.7 earthquake up about 120 miles NW of Juneau (almost 60 miles west of Skagway) at about 9.0 miles deep at 6:49 was all the alarm clock some of us needed. Exciting way to start the day, and hopefully no one up there is hurt. I’m curious to know how many avalanches it triggered..
Hope you all have a rockin’ day.
I just got this email from NASA News:
NASA Science News for January 8, 2007It’s official: the Moon is on the metric system. NASA is returning to the Moon, and the agency has decided to use metric units for all future lunar operations.
FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/08jan_metricmoon.htm?list73928
We’re so cutting edge! It is 2007, and we’re getting ready for.. 1969We’re going to the moon! (Apollo 11, July 20, 1969)
We’re using the metric system! (Australia converted to metric in 1969).
Guess what, I just discovered this great cutting edge new band. Called the Grateful Dead! They are hot!
What other parallels might we find–let’s see: In 1969 a country called Vietnam was using the metric system. In 2007 this other country called Iraq is using the metric system. Boy, a lot of countries use the metric system. I’m just sayin’.
I’m excited we’re going to the moon, I’d sign up to go. I’d be psyched to check out Jack Schmidt’s ski reports and I’d love to try out some biking. I love the metric system. I love the Dead. (I’ve been listening to 5/8/77 on the ipod, Torsten loves drummin’ along with the Hamza El-Din opening of the 9/15/1978 Gizah Sound and Light Theater show (at the Pyramids in Egypt), and after finishing Phil’s “Searching for the Sound” auto-biography, I’ve been going back to a lot of early shows. From 1969. I’m cutting edge here, I tell ya!)I’m just thinking, ‘cmon NASA, fund sensor networks or something. Oh, OK, I’ll get back to work. Sorry.
We went for a hike out at Mendenhall Glacier over the weekend. Torsten is a true Juneau kid: The sun poked out for a very nice Sunday, and Torsten thought it was waaay too bright. He refused to turn around for a picture, and said “Why don’t you take one of me walking away?”
Then finally he would turn around but not look up:
Finally, I got him standing in my shadow and he gave a quick glance.
Look in that first picture–there are shadows! The sun really did come out! 🙂
Click on the picture of Torsten and Santa to get a movie of Torsten’s appreciation of Santa’s visit. If you want to see a bunch of photos from the Christmas festivities (mostly Torsten opening packages!), check out the 2006 Christmas gallery.
Torsten was completely delighted with the whole Christmas experience. On Christmas Eve Eve (Dec 23), during nap time, the “big boy bed” (bunk bed) was setup. That was just the beginning of the excitment. On Christmas Eve (day), Matt and Carrie got a Christmas present of Nana and Grandpa Bob watching Torsten so they actually got to go up to Eaglecrest and ski together!! (What a novelty for parents of a 2 year old!) Check out some of our Christmas at Eaglecrest pictures by clicking on the image of us on the ski lift:
After the Christmas Eve nap, we all went back up to Eaglecrest for the music, torch lit ski parade, and finally Santa’s arrival. Torsten was very (barely) patient as he was one of the later kids to be given a present from Santa (he received a Playdoh Factory and was very appreciative. The whole time up at Eaglecrest was exciting!
On Christmas, we opened and enjoyed presents, pausing to play and read, and finally running out of steam–so Torsten has presents left to open on Dec 26, and probably Dec 27… We all went to a great Christmas dinner at Joan, Doug, and Eva’s place.
We hope you had a great holiday celebration!
We are all excited to have Nana and Grandpa Bob here in Juneau. We are all relieved they made it in, even if it was delayed. They descended into a snowstorm and high wind warnings. Torsten is really enjoying their company so far, and Carrie and Matt are looking forward to getting to ski together at Eaglecrest tomorrow.
The copier is busted, so I can’t do my note xeroxing prep-work for next semester. I’ve got about 30 minutes until I meet Dr. Satoshi Miura to re-install the gravimeter over in the library (this is part of the ISEA or International geodetic project in SouthEastern Alaska. Check out the recent ISEA AGU abstract about it. That link might even work..)
I’m trying to install xubuntu on my Mac OSX 10.4.8 machine in parallels. It seems really slow right now, but I am going to wait and see. I think it is because ubuntu is trying to repartition the drive (partman is the main process running), while I set parallels to dynamically create and resize the virtual disk. If I give up (it is hung at 15% on the installer), I might try to create a fixed virtual disk file. I might also switch over to a debian netinstall attempt. This all came about because the one app I need in OSX that I just continually battle with is gnucash. So if I have a Linux box running and gnucash is an apt-get away, perhaps life will be a tad bit better. I’ll document the battle in the comments, in case someone else has the same brilliant idea..
