Big news about Emily!

I'm not sure if anyone still reads this blog, but I'll post and see if anything happens...

I heard through the rumor mill (aka Melissa) that Emily and Alan are engaged, and getting married next March!

Excellent!! Congratulations!! Davis is apparently very excited about his role as ring bearer :)

So, any details about the proposal??

Not much exciting going on here. It snowed here for Easter -- bleagh! And, it has just started snowing again. Michael is in school and working on campus in a plant genetics lab. He loves it, but it keeps him very busy. I'm probably going to Denmark again for work towards the end of May. Other than that, it's just boring daily life here.

What's up with you guys?

Ashley

Australia!

I'm attempting to put a link here for photos from my recent trip to Australia. Most of my time was spent working (a conference, followed by a class on network analysis), but I did squeeze in a snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier Reef, and a trip up the coast to this very cool rainforest area.

My luggage got lost going BOTH directions (a new record for me, and not one I want to repeat!), which was inconvenient and nearly caused me to go snorkeling in my underwear (snorkeling trip left early morning the day after I arrived). This would have been especially fun given that the snorkeling trip was with work colleagues. Fortunately, I was able to run (literally -- and it was at least 2 miles) to Target with minutes to spare before they closed and grab something off the rack.

I felt fantastically fit being suddenly at sea level! I'd been trying to get a running program off the ground here in Colorado and having No Luck At All. When I went for a run in Cairns, I went for 4 or 5 miles without even noticing. Excellent! Now I'm back at altitude and back to huffing and puffing, but it's still going better than it was before I left. It helps that temperatures are now in the 70's and 80's instead of the 90's and 100's.

Emily, how's your puppy doing? She's very cute!

A day without water

In the ongoing sprinkler installation project ( now on week 5), yesterday was a key moment, when our newly-replaced main water line was to be hooked up to our plumbing. Much excitement. The inspector came in the morning, and certified that the new water line was sufficiently deep enough that it wouldn't freeze in the winter. The water to the house was shut off, the old plumbing disconnected, and....

Apparently our house is plumbed with pipe that has never before in the history of mankind been used for indoor plumbing. 1/2 inch galvanized pipe, in case you were wondering. It is also so gunked up that on a cross-section of the pipe, less than 1/4 will actually allow water flow.

The unique pipe diameter (the rest of the universe uses 3/4 inch) made it extremely difficult to connect it to the water main using any fitting presently manufactured in the US. Our contractor went to 5 different plumbing supply places, each of which independently told him that our house could not actually be plumbed the way he said it was. He then whipped out the actual pipe from our house and listened to them say things like "never in my 30 years in the business have I seen anything like that!" Finally, some old store had something suitable sitting on a shelf and gave it to him out of pity (and because it wasn't in their inventory and they had no idea how to price it). We now have water again, although he had to construct a gasket out of a piece of bicycle tire tubing to stop it from leaking. I think replacement of the indoor plumbing has just moved waaaaay up on the priority list for home repairs.

Ashley

Uncle Bob takes a vacation

Last week Dad actually went on a vacation that didn't have anything to do with relatives, trains, or educational elderhosteling. Alert the media -- I don't think he's ever done this before. Also, he went out of the country, which I also think is a first for him, amazingly.

He and Mom went on a 3-day cruise from SF to British Columbia. As far as I can tell, the ship stopped exactly twice: once to pick everyone up in SF, and then to drop everyone off in ... Vancouver? Victoria? One of those V places in BC. It sounds as though they had fun reading, watching the scenery, eating constantly, and all those other things one does on a cruise. They did skip the seasickness part, though, which apparently affected lots of other passengers who hopped onboard, scarfed a giant buffet, and then floated out under the Golden Gate to the choppy ocean. M&D had opted to take dramamine and skip the buffet.

No other exciting news to report. We are in week 4 of our "5 to 7 day" sprinkler installation project. I'm actually working from home today so that I could be here to let the contractor into the basement. He was supposed to be here at 9am. It's now 2pm and I have yet to see him. This had better be the best sprinkler system ever.

Ashley

Thanks for the great weekend!

Thanks to Eileen and David for hosting us, and to the whole Houston cousin gang for driving us all over the place and hanging out all weekend. I had a great time! No tan for me, but I do have a nicely sunburned scalp as a memento of the weekend.
The weird fork-turned-potholder-hanger caused quite a ruckus when I put my backpack through the screener at the Houston airport. Nobody there had ever seen anything quite like it, but they finally decided that I was unlikely to use it as a weapon.
It's 30 and raining/snowing/sleeting here in CO, so needless to say I am not wearing either of the tank tops I purchased!

Thanks again!