After our last visit to the San Diego Zoo, I thought perhaps the tapir was my favorite animal. Now I am starting to lean towards the okapi. Despite the zebra-bottom appearance, the okapi is most closely related to the giraffe. This is easy to believe because their heads look just like a giraffe head minus the knobby horns and about 12 feet of elevation. It also shares the giraffe's outrageouly long tounge. Definitely fun to watch. 
Orion is attempting to break the SR-71A at Blackbird Airpark with Uncle Kenny assisting. Meri is borrowing my coat - she didn't like her's and it was a bit chilly with the wind blowing (the day after Thanksgiving).
We recently visited the nearby Devil's Punchbowl Natural Area to see some rock formation. Jessica spent time walking around the house saying "rock formations" though she would not say it when actually confronted with the said formations. We hiked some and enjoyed the view.
A successful Halloween has come and gone. Nobody got upset this year - a first. Last year Brayton left the wand that went to his Harry Potter costume at school and was not able to bring it to the church "Trunk or Treat" activity. One year Orion ate so much candy that he threw up (so kids - that's not just an idle parental warning). One year my red Christopher Robin balloon (everyone else was some Pooh Bear character) got popped several times in a row - I was inconsolable. This year was great all around.
Here we see the intrepid coach of AYSO Region 91 U6 soocer team, the Romulans, giving sage advice as to how to defeat team Ewok. Ylfelynn and I are both coaching a soccer team this season. I will get a picture of her up here too. Orion is on the Romulans. None of the kids know what a Romulan is and only a few of the parents do. Ylfelynn is coaching Meri's team - the CatDogs.
This reminds of a joke I like (WARNING - engineer humor to follow - may not be funny to normal people) What is the difference between a civil and a mechanical engineer? Mechanical engineer design weapons and civil engineers design targets.
Meri and Jessica squatting together near the tent during our recent camping trip in Tehachapi. This was the first time we have all gone camping together.
Here is another picture from our trip to the San Diego Zoo. This is Brayton, Ethan, and Jessica en route to the panda exhibit.
When asked which animal they liked the most during our recent trip to the San Diego Zoo, the kids replied, "the lizard!" The lizard can be seen just to the right of Ethan's head (middle, front). It is actually a lizard running free in the zoo and not part of any exhibit. We got close enough to touch it, which Brayton did and it scurried away. Maybe next time we should just go down the street, out into the desert, and catch lizards locally. It looks like an anole to me but I do not think anoles are native to SW California so perhaps it escaped. It was a big hit.
Here is it. Well, part of it, anyway. The back end of the Spruce Goose. It is actually made mostly of birch with just a little spruce. The most striking part, I thought, was the vertical tail. That is a massive structure. It was not possible to capture the entire plane from inside the Evergreen Aviation Museum which we visited when we were in Oregon in May. It is a really nice facility with some interesting airplanes like to Beechcraft Starship you can see in the foreground.
In May, Ethan turned seven. He wanted an alien-themed birthday. He got it. There are two big aliens because of an eBay mixup. We thought the first we ordered was not coming so a second order was placed. Now we have two.
Today I accepted a job to work on the F-35 Lightning II. This brings to a close my time working on the landing gear of the U-2 Dragon Lady. It has been a good experience. She is an amazing plane. This will be the first time in my engineering career that I will be working on a new product. Most, if not all, of my past projects had been around about at least as long as I have. Examples: Boeing 757 (1982), S5W reactor (1959), and the afore-mentioned U-2 (1955).
Brayton and Ethan contemplate the beauty of an odd-toed ungulate, the Malayan tapir. This one lives in the San Diego Zoo. That's one interesting beastie.
We visted San Ramon in March to meet Josh's fiance. While there, we visited Monterey Bay Aquarium. Here, Brayton and I are looking out from a sting ray exhibit.
We thought we gave up the snow when we left New York. I guess not. This is a picture from March. There was actually enough snow to build a snowman. He lasted about two hours.
Brayton is eight years old! With that age comes the joy of Cub Scouts. And the big event for Cub Scouts is, of course, the annual Pinewood Derby. Give me a few minutes to finish this after the kids are in bed.
Leia, the cat pictured between Meri and Jessica, recently returned from a two week disappearance. We had bascially given her up for dead. The neighbor said he lost a cat to coyotes once. We have never seen signs of coyotes but there was not a single sign of Leia anywhere so maybe that was plausible. Leia and her brother Luke (imported from New York) have always been house cats. Leia would occassionally go out the back door but would always stay very close to the door and would run inside if spooked by anything. I guess one day she decided to have an adventure. We put up signs, talked to neighbors, and visited the pound and there was still no sign of her. Two weeks later we thought we would never see her again. Last Thursday, however, as I was heading into the house after getting home from work, I spied a black, calico cat at corner of the house. Could it be? Sure enough, after I eased up to her (she was definitely acting skittish), I was able to pick her up and bring her inside. She had lost weight but she had no other signs of distress. So far she has been silent about where she was for all that time. Luke was not excited to see her. He has been hising and growling at her since her return. This evidence supports one of my theories: Luke ran her out. Kind of like Uncle Scar and Simba in the Lion King: "Run away and never return". My other theory is that aliens abducted her and now we have a robot cat with a little alien inside. So far we have not caught alien Leia using the computer so maybe that theory is no good. Leia has been seeking extra attention from everybody since her return. Luke had been enjoying that attention during her absence so maybe that is why Luke is unhappy.
I think she want some more ice cream. Here is a picture from our recent trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I have some more to post.
