081231 Jeff and Ethan Ski

We really needed some exercise today, and there had been a new fall of about six inches of snow over night, so it was off to the 'slopes,' such as they are in southeastern Michigan. Ethan used skis, and Jeff decided that he needed to sample a snowboard. Guess who suffered more?

2008 Christmas Story

We've been living it up in Michigan, celebrating the other mid-winter festival, handling weapons and just breaking all the rules.

Cold weather and good snow greeted us in Michigan, where we are visiting those members of our families who could get away for the winter holidays. Ethan took advantage of the weather to make a snow angel.

Ethan celebrated his birthday on Thanksgiving this year, with a drumstick all to himself.

Boo! Karen, Karen and Ethan made intricate jack-o-lanterns this year.

Oops. Wrong blog. Forget that. Burn after reading.

Down comes our sukkah for another year. The parts from last year went together well this year, and the whole thing goes up or down in about an hour. Is that temporary enough for you? Ethan and I slept out in the sukkah twice this year, and got wet from the sprinklers both times.

Ethan and his friends performed at the Meadows Elementary School Halloween Festival. Their band was called "Roadkill," and they played Ramones, Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne. Just like the first time I saw U2, they didn't have enough material for a whole set, and played everything twice. Ethan sang, as you can see.

Dragon Fruit (Pitaya) from the Manhattan Beach Farmers' Market did indeed taste like a cross between Kiwi and Watermelon, but it was too expensive to be a regular diversion. Lovely color, though.

I flew to Kwajalein for the Falcon 1 launch, and spent several days out there in the Pacific. Unfortunately, I had to come home before the launch, but the feeling of success was no less sweet. Here's a slideshow of the trip.

Mérode and Max came to visit for the holiday weeknd. Amongst other thing we went to Abalone Cove for a walk.

We sent Ethan off for his first day of middle school today. He's going to Manhattan Beach Middle School, which is about a mile from home.

Maybe a little out of focus (aren't we all), but I wanted to show that Beth Szymanski came to visit us in LA. It turns out that LA draws a lot of visitors! We went to the Getty, in spite of Ethan's protests that he'd 'been there before.'

Hotel Green-Ward hosted an excellent visit from the Parkers, including trips to Dodger Stadium, Universal City, Venice and Manhattan beach. Here they all are lined up for departure.

Falcon-1 Flight 003 launch, and the place to be was the command van, where data streamed through from Kwaj. Here's propulsion expert Tom Muller studying the screens.

Our cats have fleas...so we're trying to clean up their acts. Here's Tekiah getting a bath. Too bad there's no audio; she makes a lovely noise.

Tekiah getting her bath.

080704 Kralls' Visit to LA

The Edmumonds-Krall clan came to visit L.A. and we got together on the beach for the 4th of July.

Last Friday marked the end of Ethan's first week of Rock Kamp, and the boy rocked out with his buddies performing 'Killing in the Name' by Rage Against the Machine. You Tube video to follow!

080621 Gunion Run

Saturday night was hot, and the full moon had passed, so we decided it was time to go see the California Grunion running. We took Ethan and his friend Clayton and drove about 15 miles down to San Pedro, where the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium runs a Grunion Greeting program. The first sign that this was going to be something other than a few naturalists looking at fish was when we encountered the line of cars getting into the parking lot. The whole thing was very well run, and we spent the evening in the aquarium, where we checked out the regular exhibits, watched a (40-year old) film about Grunion, and got a chance to hatch Grunion fry by agitating eggs in jars of sea water. Then we duly marched down to the beach and waited...and waited...and waited. Eventually I believe I saw a couple of grunion, but they were easily outnumbered 100:1 by spectators. We tried to be quiet and not spook them, but it is difficult for several hundred people ranging from 3 to 80 years old to move quietly around a beach in the dark. Maybe next year we'll find a secluded beach in Baja to try again.