Happy New . . .

. . . Year's Adam.













because tomorrow is new years eve!

A couple more from Christmas

14,505

The last time I hiked to the top of Mount Whitney, in the late 1970s [before you were born], it had an elevation of 14,495. The new elevation is 14,505.

More Christmas Photos with Kith and Kin

Christmas is a happy time!

Daniel's secret for next year's rides

Dear Uncle Glen and Aunt Cindi,

Although I verily enjoyed having lunch together at Mt Baldy Village this year, I now have a new support vehicle sponsored by SRAM, and I thus no longer need your assisstance.

Sincerely from your nephew,
Daniel

(Just kidding. I made this car today from a magazine advertisement, so it couldn't be any more than a mental support and stimulus on a ride.)

Merry Christmas from the past!

Got gout?

Don't shout!
Don't pout!
Grab one of these and find
escape route!

Changes at the FoodTV channel

Ok, that last post, I don't know. Cindi just made me listen to the whole thing. It is very odd. But, I couldn't resist posting it because I can.

This news however is stunning--Emeril Live is canceled. They still have another year's worth of shows coming up. But, after that it is just pretty girls and whatever. More is here.

Traditional Byzantine Hymn of Christmas in Arabic

Hukilau

Shannon was cleaning out some files and ran into this picture from the Mountain Democrat.  Very cute!  Now if I can just learn how to stream video I could post Andrew singing his Dinosaur Report with Erin Widger, too!

Love,

Mom

Did someone forget to leave a tip?!?!?

I can't stand another day of waiting on tables!

Tour of America Cycling Race--September 2008--21 days

Announced here. What do you think about that? At least it's not baseball Mr. Mitchel. And, anyway, those were just vitamins I took.

So, what do you all want for Christmas?

Birthday and Thanksgiving Pictures

Brianna openning her gift of knitted bells from GreatGrandma Doris.



























Uncle Andrew plays horse.






















Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma.


















This is what a ballerina birthday party looks like.

















This is the very special birthday room that MamaBeth decorated.

Grandma Doris' weather report

My rain guage showed 1.8" of rain thru 2 PM today. It has quit for now.

So, back to the real world . . .

So, here I am thinking about all these offers of "help." What would really be helpful--of course thinking a towel selection notwithstanding!

It would be fabulous if all these things could be done before the Remingtons arrived on 19 December. Feel free to sign up!

1. Repair overhead light in guest bedroom (no electricity arriving on the old conductors [wires]). _________________
2. Finish stripping wall paper in guest bedroom. __________________
   
3. Paint guest bedroom and upstairs bathroom (finish a job started long ago). _________________
4. Fix the floor in downstairs bathroom. _____________________
5. New tile ______________________
6. Install toilet and sink. _____________________
   

And, of course, nothing that a new towel or two couldn't remedy:

Ohio Couple Plans Holiday Travel

Dick & Jane will be coming to California for the Christmas time. We just received confirmation. They will arrive at LAX on Wednesday, December 19th, and return to the cold Midwest on Monday, December 31st. I am happy they will be coming.

Volunteer Opps are up!

Just noticed that the Tour of California volunteer opportunities are up. I put my name in.

My Olvera Street video is posted here.

Hope you all had a nice Dia de los Muertos yesterday.

I went to Olvera Street, downtown, and shot some pictures and video, so I have a new multimedia report in the can. It should appear in the multimedia section of the Daily Titan Web site Tuesday.

More Santa Ana winds forcast for Friday

This is what the caused last week with smoke distribution.

Headed to Ohio

I'll be spending the weekend with my parents in Ohio. I just checked the weather. High 50's during the day and mid- to high 30's at night. Brrrrr. It will probably feel refreshing. Better pack a bulky coat -- or layers. I am also wondering what I will see from the air as we pass by the local fires. I will return with the Remington holiday travel plans in detail. I'll be checking the blog for the latest family antics while I'm gone. I'll have to go to Panera Bread near my parents home to check e-mail (see photo of me there in July) -- glad the place are wifi and it is free. [This is trip #2 in my recent commitment to visit the folks 3 times a year; plus their trip to the West Coast at Christmas = 4 visits annually...only 3 for 2007, though...got a late start.]

No-news is good-news

I saw a city truck closing the parking lot at the trailhead to the wilderness area near our house. I drove up to see what the sign said on Sunday.



As the sun is setting tonight through the particulate matter that has been dispersed into the atmosphere.

Climbing Through The Family Tree

Mom needed some details on the Remington heritage, so yesterday I dug out the Remington genealogy information. Yellowed and fading like a diagrammed sentence on steroids was the list of generations of Remingtons in the United States.

I discovered some things that caught my attention. John Remington immigrated to America in 1637, very probably the fifth son of the Reverend Richard Remington, D.D., Parson of Lockington, in Yorkshire and Archdeacon of the East Riding, England. He became a "freeman" after two years. I did not recall what a freeman was, so I read on, and was disturbed to find out the authority of the Puritans after leaving England to avoid the same. [My selective recall of US history amuses me.]

Freeman – "Puritans set up in Massachusetts a 'religion dominated state even more authoritarian and even less tolerant of dissenters than the England from which they had fled. So to be a freeman – or citizen with a right to vote – a man had, first to be a member of a Puritan congregation. All colonists were required to take an oath of submission to the regime they had created and to attend church regularly.”

Benjamin Remington, 6th generation. from whom I am a descendant, lived in Jamestown. I do not know if there was only one Jamestown at the time. However, he was a Captain in the Revolutionary War and had two homes burned by the British.

Next, I discovered that one of the distant relatives had a grandson name was Richard Henry Dana. He wrote the book, "Two Years Before the Mast," and Dana Point is named for him.

I finally narrowed down our distant link to the Western artist, Frederick Remington. John Remington, the first generation in the USA had kids, including another John Remington and Thomas Remington. I am 13th generation through brother John. Frederick Remington is 9th generation through Thomas. Not as direct a link as I originally thought.

The Remington Arms Company (rifles) founder is also in the ancestral lines. Not close enough for inheritance, and with my position on guns -- that is probably a good thing. I would feel compromised.

Glen and I talked about the Davis family coming to the USA about the same time. It is interesting to connect to the past and think of real lives not just dates and events within history.

This is interesting to me as a baseball fan, and as a travel article writer.

At Dinner tonight in St. Louis, MO [corrected]

Yesterday I drove to and from Bodie, the queen of all ghost towns. Located around 8,000 feet in elevation north of Mono Lake, it is not a quick drive from any civilized point of departure. I took a buncha pictures, and experimenting, I shot most of them through my polarized sunglass lense, and they came out really spooky-like!



They're going to let me write an article about it for the newspaper, and post a photo slide-show on the Daily Titan Web site, which is fun.

Google's banners draw fire.

Afternoon at the dog park

Sam and Ash got to go to the dog park in Fullerton the other day. This is them in the back seat of the Camry coming home afterward. Don't the look happy?

Cute Google Art Again

Simple pleasures for simple minds? The Google logo had some additional art again today -- celebrating Sputnik's 50th anniversary. I was 2 years and 3 months old. My dad took a photo of my brother and I holding the newspaper with the Sputnik headline on it. I wonder where that photo is? I also heard over and over about the kick in the pants that event was to American education during my teacher training. Happy anniversary, Sput!

[On another topic -- Go CUBS!! Go RED SOX!! Go INDIANS!!]

Take a sample citizenship test.

Speaking of citizenship, or lack thereof...

Happy Birthday Rob and Google!

Google's 9th Birthday!

I "Googled" today and tonight and noticed some creative art on the logo. I clicked on the logo to get a better look -- it's the "g" in Google made into a pinata with candy falling out. It's Google's 9th birthday. Does that mean Rob and Google share the day? I get a kick out of Google when they do the little creative thing.

I like this story I wrote.

What in the World?

I was just doing some light reading in my National Geographic World Atlas, and I came across some interesting statistics (that is an oxymoron in some cases! -- interesting statistics, if you ask me.) So lets see what you know and if you have any hidden biases.
1. What is the largest city in North American? (Population)
2. What is the second largest country in the world by area?
3. China and the USA are about the same size almost in area. What about in population?
4. Which ocean has a bigger percentage of the earth's water, Atlantic or Pacific?
I could go on and on, but I have a hard enough time keeping friends as it is.

New Word New Fun

Today my friend told me she didn't like meeting with a colleague because he tended to bloviate. Huh? So I learned a great new descriptive verb today. She said it is a relatively new word...about 50 years old (so I'm about 50...am I relatively new? Why not!). I came home and looked it up and Glen and I have made it the Milton House word for the day. Well, I'll stop here, lest I be accussed of bloviation? Bloviate: to orate verbosely and windily. (What's orate? -- I know what that is...I heard a speech on it once. Just kidding.)

It's raining in Whittier! Autumn begins in two days, but a highly unusual winter storm has overtaken the LA basin this evening, and will continue throughout the night. Meteorologists forecast one half to an inch of rain, but I was skeptical merely an hour or so ago.

The change in seasons is something I miss about living in Nor-Cal, so the first rain of the autumn is huge to me, especially living in this desert.



I'm extremely excited about the free car wash.

More on Landis

KTTV, Channel 11, in Los Angeles says they have an interview with Landis at 10, they are showing footage of Floyd talking in front of the front door of his house.

The news was broke to the world by EDDIE PELLS, AP National Writer.

According to Ken Barbalce of EnvironmentalChemestry.com says, ". . .Today appears to be a very, very dark day for science, fairness and due process." You can read his summary of the information here.

Constant information update can be seen at Trust But Verify.

AP announces Landis verdict. . .

According to documents obtained by AP, and to be made public later Thursday, the vote was 2-1 to uphold the results, with lead arbitrator Patrice Brunet and Richard McLaren in the majority and Christopher Campbell dissenting.

Landis responds:

"This ruling is a blow to athletes and cyclists everywhere" "For the Panel to find in favor of USADA when, with respect to so many issues, USADA did not manage to prove even the most basic parts of their case shows that this system is fundamentally flawed. I am innocent, and we proved I am innocent."

The panel says that the lab did not do it's job and at least the first test cannot be trusted, and the second one is suspect. But the ruled 2-1 anyway. There is a ton of information out there Trust But Verify links to most of it. Both the majority and minority opinions are available a pdf downloads. More than I will be reading today.

Gotta go no and take medicine for my gout.

Math

Today, for the first time since transferring to Cal State Fullerton I met with an academic advisor.
I learned from Tammy Rogers that I have to take three more "collateral courses" to complete my degree in journalism. These courses are upper division "liberal arts" classes that are required in addition to the journalism course work I am taking.
This means that i will have to take a class during intersession (a class that is is taught during Christmas vacation) and then take 15 units next sememster, after which I will take the six unit internship required to graduate next summer.

So, I will be pretty busy with school for the next ten months...

I am on schedule to graduate in August of 2008 at this rate.

Yay.




To graduate from CSUF, 120 units are required. Full-time students take 12 units... so for someone to attend school full-time for four years, they will only reach 96 units, 24 units short of the requirement to graduate...

Does anyone graduate in four years anymore?

Beth's Birthday Dinner

Debbie, Brianna, Jonah, Kyle, Shawntea, and I all took MamaBeth out to dinner for her birthday. We had a great time eating asian food.

Coyote Ugly

I saw one of these on a ride this morning. She was just trotting away from the bike trail on the San Gabriel River as I noticed her. She was north of where the 605 curves over the river trail, I think.



The picture shows a much thicker animal (cannis latrans) than the skinny thing that I saw today. Next time I'll take my camera and try to have it ready. I am not the journalist that some of my nephews are becoming.



This one looks hungry like the critter I saw. I didn't see any scorpions.

Pan Am player at CSUF - Sports

If you haven't already had the opportunity to do so, you might want to check out Rob's article in the Daily Titan's sports section: Pan Am player at CSUF - Sports. I am proud to be his uncle.

Today was the first time since school started that I was able to enjoy a bike ride up in Turnbull. I was able to tour ground zero of the now infamous Turnbull Canyon blaze of '07 (okay, it wasn't that big of a deal) and I was also able to catch some wildlife that I rarely see.

Behold, a scorpion (I think this is the family that I found). It was by complete luck that I saw it, my tire narrowly missed squishing it into the tire-tracked, powdery, parched Earth along the service road that I consider a bike trail.

In the sun, it appeared to have a purple back with white limbs, and it's exoskeleton glistened like plastic, and also did not move in the slightest, which made me skeptical that this was indeed a real scorpion. So, after sufficient prodding with a twig, I was convinced that it was indeed a real scorpion, so I slipped it into a baggy I had in my pocket.

I want to find someone who will make it into one of those belt-buckles. Anyone know of someone?