Orion shows off his favorite Christmas present, Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots of the Transformer Universe. Orion is seen with Optimus in truck form and robot form. Now would be the appropriate time to utter one of the Transformer taglines. You can choose from "more than meets the eye" or "robots in disguise". I think there's a theme song that uses those words.
Ylfelynn and I on the day of our 10th annivesary (12/20/2006) outside of the Redlands California Temple. We actually live in the Los Angeles California Temple district but it was closed at the time. It's a little bit further to the Redlands temple but not a bad drive (traffic wasn't too disagreeable). What a great 10 years it has been.
Jessica is, of course, as cute as anything as seen from the picture at the left. You may notice that she is sporting a couple tattoos. These are the wear-offable ones but I hope she does not develop a taste for the real ones. She has a lightening-shaped scar tattoo a la Harry Potter on her forehead and a skunk tattoo a la Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. She is also getting pretty good at driving a tricycle. In her socks.
Here we are at the San Diego Zoo, waiting in line to see the pandas. Jandi and Kenny, visiting from AZ, went to the zoo with us. There was some griping about waiting in line, but the pandas were awake and doing stuff. One things we learned was that pandas like to sleep in trees. Indeed, the zoo's latest baby panda was lounging overhead when we visited. They said pandas often fall out of the trees when sleeping and can fall 40 feet or more and not be hurt. They can even continue sleeping after falling. Weird!
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.
