One of the things that a few of us wanted to do during our recent trip to New Mexico was spend a little time in the great outdoors. My brother Dave had never been to New Mexico before and we thought that Bandelier National Monument would be a great excursion. So one day, while others partook…
A three day weekend with guests gets the full treatment, right? I think so.
New Mexico’s State slogan is “The Land of Enchantment”, and The Beloved and I it’s a pretty special place. We have a history there that dates back to the very beginning of our relationship and so it holds a lot of sentimental value for us. We thought we’d go back often, but in our time…
It’s said that all good things come to an end, and so it is with our field trial test of our BMW Active E, Buzz. It’s hard to believe that two years (25 months, if we’re being specific) have already zipped by. Doesn’t seem possible. When we signed up to participate in the Active E…
Several weeks ago, the Beloved and I decided to spend a day at one of San Diego’s more famous tourist destinations — the San Diego Zoo. We like the Zoo, and are members, but never seem to get there as often as we’d like. So, we figured, why not? My general feeling is that a…
I’ve been writing a lot the past couple of weeks (for a proposal, not here, unfortunately), but I came across this bit about when you know you’ve been in the lab too long, and thought it was a lot of fun. Some of them are DEFINITELY true — I particularly love #1, #8, #33 and #50,…
When you’re a scientist, visualizing data can be crucial to understanding and communication. Graphs are almost always better than data tables and a smartly-drawn diagram can often convey more than a long, detailed paragraph. I was thinking about this today because of a YouTube link a friend sent me that had a visualization of the…
One of the more intriguing gifts I received this past Christmas was a “Cheesemaking Kit”. We’ve gotten into making stuff from scratch here at The Aerie – fresh bread, fresh pizza, fresh pasta. What better to go on it than a little fresh mozzarella, right? A rare, rainy weekend here in San Diego provided plenty…
If anything ramps up in February, it’s a focus on romance with Valentine’s hearts popping up like early crocuses and a focus on high-end movies as the Academy Awards season is in full swing. With those things percolating around my brain, I’ve been thinking about one of the better films I saw last year, Before…
One of the books that I’ve enjoyed recently is Night Film by Marisha Pressl. In it, Scott McGrath, a down-on-his-luck reporter is drawn into a deepening spiral of intrigue as he investigates the apparent suicide of the famous film director Stanislas Cordova. You see, it was over-zealousness in a story digging into allegations about the…
Our week up in Cambria wasn’t all the same routine. In our rental house, we found a couple of books by Ron Stob on the Backroads of the Central Coast. We’re folks that like to get off the beaten path and so decided to load up Adventure Dog and to spend a day finding some…
Since we’ve been at The Aerie, the real turning point that marks the end of one year and the start of the next is the week following The Beloved’’s big Symposium, which is always right after New Years. It completes her busiest time of the work-year and so we always take a little break afterwards.…
It’s a hard thing, you know, reflecting on favorite television shows in a Sherlock-less year, but I suppose there were still some pretty good offerings in 2013, tube-wise. Sort of a surprise hit to me, I thought The Americans (FX) was the strongest show of the year. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys portray Elizabeth and…
At The Aerie, we’re both scientists that love to talk politics over happy hour and so it was with great interest this week that the Washington Post published an analysis of consumer data crossed with polling data by Jennifer Dube of National Media Research Planning and Placement. Her analysis shows that certain wines and liquors…
Not that you’d know it from the appalling lack of book reviews here (or any other posts, really), but I had a good “book year” in 2013. Several excellent ones, mostly good ones, with only a few clunkers or disappointments. I even succeeded in my Goodreads Challenge of reading 45 books — though it was…
Stevil 