Archives for December, 2004

Xmas photos

Mom-in-law wanted to see some pics of the goings-on, so I threw a few up online. See them (complete with Japanese comments) right over here.

12/27/2004 | family | Comments Off

Sleepy Xmas

In California . . . jet-lagging . . . and Grandma proves how much tougher she is than us when it comes to staying awake on the sofa in front of the fire.

sleepy-tn.jpg

12/25/2004 | family | Comments Off

Chilly California

Back home for a Christmas visit . . . It’s cold here in San Rafael! We got in yesterday morning and Adam and Sue picked us up at SFO. Drove up to the ancestral mansion and met everyone again. It’s been a while.

Then we went to sleep at about 4:00 in the afternoon, woke up for dinner at about 11:00, and then got up again several times in the morning. Not too bad so far as far as jet-lag goes, especially if we can keep up this “getting up in the mornings” thing. That’s always the hard part for me coming this way across the Pacific.

No pics or anything to upload yet . . . I’m trying to figure out the settings to stick in my PowerBook so I can connect from my 10.3 machine instead of this 10.2 eMac my folks are using. I might have to upgrade them while I’m here. (That could be a dumb idea if it breaks their net connection, though. I had no luck fiddling with things on my machine this morning.)

All for now. I need a shower!

12/21/2004 | family | Comments Off

McManus news

Susannah McManus, formerly of Japan Echo, wrote to say that (a) she and Julian were moving to Denver CO, which offers much nicer skiing than Miami FL, and (b) that she was officially “Susannah and the Bump.” The meaning is clear from the photo she attached:

mcmanus.jpg

Congratulations to the two on their auspicious move and their impending parenthood!

12/18/2004 | life | Comments Off

Winter clouds

I remember driving through the far northern reaches of California and mountainous areas of Oregon during a bitter winter 12 or 13 years ago. It was somewhere between 30 below and 40 below. This superchilled air blew over the surface of small ponds and lakes that had yet to freeze (maybe they were fed by hot springs, or had streams feeding them that kept the surface choppy) and formed billowing clouds of steam. It looked like these were boiling cauldrons. Very impressive stuff.

winter-clouds.jpg

This is that phenomenon on a grand scale. Instead of ponds in the northern Californian high country it’s the Great Lakes. An amazing shot . . . it’s on my computer desktop now.

12/09/2004 | web | Comments Off