Another year ends

I'm hoping to make one more post tonight before the ball drops, but here's a quick look at the holidays so far;

What a month

A quick recap of December:

-I spent a wonderful weekend with Bunny for her birthday
-I got straight A's this semester in my programming classes
-The kids in my Calc B class earned a B+ average overall
-I did a TON of shopping for Christmas
-I installed some new gadgets in my car
-I fixed my headlights


Unfortunately, I haven't had time to document much of this since I've been running all over the place lately.  It's been hectic but wonderful and thrilling. I can't recap everything in the order that it was all done, but I have a bunch of photos to share.
Enjoy, and I'll be back on Christmas!

Birthday Cake

Colored Candles!

A puzzle called IZZI from work (missing 1 piece!)

Three's company

My Lego Starship Enterprise

I won!

Our Christmas Trees

A little sleeping pile of fluff

Last night, Twinkie decided that 2 am was an opportune time to wake me up and let me know he was itchy.
Today he was fast asleep on my bed as I was getting ready for work - at 11 am.
And he snores.
(hint: press the HD button on the video for the high definition verison)

Gobble gobble again!

It's that time of year again - the second Thanksgiving for my blog! A little less excitement this year - no 4 a.m. black Friday shopping runs or anything like that - just a good time with family and Joe :) The food was amazing as always - and always makes for delicious sandwiches the next day. My favorite: leftover turkey, stuffing, bacon, cranberry sauce and mustard on a french roll - yum.

10 days late

It's been a while since a new picture was posted here - as we head toward the end of the semester I seem to spend less and less time with my camera - not exactly the philosophy I want to adopt permanently. Luckily I have enough planned for the next month or so (and the upcoming holidays) to fill in a bunch of posts soon. So the next two posts are rapid updates - a bit of Twinkie being adorable and the Thanksgiving holiday; Enjoy! (hint: press the HD button on the video for the high definition verison)

A Word from the Creator

Today I had an awesome experience in bad computing; I forgot my admin password on my Mac Mini and had to reset through the OS X disk - during which I inadvertently re-installed Snow Leopard on my Mac - amazing. All is squared away now and running smoothly, but I cannot for the life of me remember what that password was. I failed to mention another aspect of my weekend; I listened to around 80% of the audiobook for Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" - a remarkable examination of human history, philosophy, and astronomy mixed into a wonderful ball of fact and speculation about our future in the stars. I really enjoy listening to Sagan's ideas and after giving Cosmos a second try on Netflix over the weekend as well, I think I'll be happy to finish both in the near future.

My Weekend with Bunny

Please enjoy a collection of photos taken by Bunny and myself this weekend in San Francisco - we had a wonderful time together and I thought I'd share it. The first few photos were taken at Francisco and Larkin Streets where we happened upon a stellar view of the marina. Down by Fort Mason, this little bird was bathing between two cars in a puddle. The "Long Now" project, this mechanical clock is being designed to run for 10,000 years without winding. The chimes (they look like bowls in a photo below) are designed to play a different tone every day for those 10,000 years. It sees you!

A Tale of the Ancients

My dad picked this up for me in Ephesus years ago - it's really tiny, about the size of a penny. I never knew exactly what it was, except that it came from the Byzantine Empire. Last night I was researching this and some of my other ancient coins that he brought back for me. Well, I finally figured this one out - it's from 610-613 AD and is the coin of Emperor Heraclius. The reason why the coin has to have been struck in the first three years of his reign is because afterwards the coins depict his newborn son as well. Is the coin real? Not 100% sure, but it looks way too much like the pictures I've found here for me to believe it is (notice that some of the coins have 3 steps and others have 4 - there is a difference). If it is real - the value varies wildly, but it is really an Antiques Roadshow kind of item to me.

Switch It Up!

I had a new car key cut for myself up in Daly City last weekend - I really wanted a flip-style key (it's bigger than the original one, but doesn't poke me in my pocket) - and I really like the switch mechanism. Unfortunately, the keyless entry remote buttons on the other side only turn on the flashlight built into it. I'll have to investigate fully whether or not I can get my actual keyless entry remote to fit inside this one.

Neverwas

Behold the wonderment of Halloween at the Exploratorium - some bugs, some sugary skulls, and the Neverwas Haul - a 3 story (more like 2 1/2) Victorian-style steam-powered (it drives!) house. Also some ASPCA kittens :)