Luminarias

Merry Christmas from New Mexico!

There's a line in New Mexico that says you know you are from New Mexico when your Christmas decorations include 500 paper bags and candles, and a half ton of sand.

Luminarias (photo from New Mexico Photo.com) light the way to your home for the Christ child. Yes, they are paper bags, but they really are beautiful when they are all lit.

Quincy and Jacob helped the high school band set up about 60,000 luminarias this holiday season. Setting these up is a real reminder of the wonderful community we live in. The band kids work from early morning to dark for days to make this happen, and people are kind with holiday goodies when you arrive to set up their luminarias.

Thanks to all who supported the band. If you live in the area and we missed you this year, we will get you next year!

Moon over Onions

This moon rose over the Mesilla Valley Sunday after we all helped Quincy's band set up luminarias, New Mexican Christmas decorations. (Photo by Quincy.)

As we pulled off the road by this onion field to take this picture, another car also stopped. People in New Mexico always seem to travel with their cameras to capture moments like these.

This is the end of a time for us, as the last year with both kids at home. Although Christmas will be spent together for some time, this is the final year of parenting two kids at home.

As they move on, we keep the home fires burning.

Could Willamette be the one?

Jacob got his first fat envelope from an admissions office yesterday. Willamette University [http://www.willamette.edu/] promised Jake a response in under three weeks, and they kept their word.

This will be a busy winter for all: Mel and Stu have to navigate financial aid forms, Jake has a final decision to make, and Quincy plans to have contractors start busting down extraneous walls for the new suite she is planning with the empty room next door. She has graciously offered Jacob the guest room while he is in town...

Bridge to Talavera

Stu and I were the third car across the new bridge this morning!

(In Southern New Mexico, you take your excitement where it comes...)

This bridge has been years in coming. When we first moved to Talavera, 3.1 miles of the road from town was dirt. Back then, fewer people were willing to drive to Talavera, and our area grew slowly.

A couple years before the millenium, the road was paved, bringing an explosion of development to our area.

As the area developed, runoff from big desert storms increased flow down the main arroyo that leads into town. The road was not designed to handle the flow, and the road regularly washed out where the arroyo crossed. We watched for years as the county graded, rip-rapped, regraded, repaved, and re-rip-rapped the area, only to have the next storm again wash it all away, leaving exposed utilities and dramatic cut banks by the side of the road.

So no more speculating on the extent of the damage each storm brings as we drive into town. Unless, of course, Mother Nature again figures out how to best the efforts of the humans who keep trying to win... Will let you know!

Beer Blog

I have been trying to convince Stu that he needs a beer blog.

Stu's knowledge of beer is encyclopedia. He began teaching "Brewing Science and Society" a few years back, and rarely has a seat gone empty in his class since. Hundreds of students who never thought they'd ever take a beer class can now explain the difference between a porter and a pale ale.

In addition to knowling a lot about beer, he brews really good beer! He has brewed ales, lagers, stout, porters, pilsners, bocks, fruit beers, wits, and too many more to name.

His most recent brew was chicha (http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/751499), a corn based brew we tased for the first time in Peru in the summer of 2006. If you are in the neighborhood, stop in and have a glass.

Somewhere that is not here...

Question parents of high school seniors are asked most often: Where is the kiddo looking to go for college?

Jake is applying to Willamette in Oregon, Carleton and Macalester in Minnesota, Clark in Massachusetts, and Swarthmore in Pennsylvania. Back-up schools are UNM in Albuquerque and perhaps some WUE school.

What is a WUE school? Check out http://www.collegiateacademy.net/counseling/4_select/select_wue.htm
Especially if you live in the western US.

Widget

Newest member of the household...

She arrived in early August, barely big enough to cover the palm of my hand. She lost a tussle with the car of a co-worker and spent her first couple weeks at our home recovering from a broken pelvis.

Amazingly enough, she had few lasting effects, although she is unusually fond of curling up on laps and purrs louder than any kitten I have ever known. She rules the roost, including the two 60-pound dogs.

Pirates of Penzance

Last weekend (while the boys were winning the state soccer tournament), Quincy was the Technical Director for Pirates of Penzance at LCHS. She and Stu (Master Carpenter) worked on the set, with help from about a dozen other students, and there was a good audience for each of the four performances.

It made for a busy weekend, but was an excellent conclusion to much hard work on the
part of Stu and Quincy.

To the top!

At 6 am this morning, Jacob and I left for a hike to the highest peak in the Organs. It was an awesome hike, led by Dave Heiner, Hiker Extraordinaire, and in the company of three Heiner daughters plus 7 family friends.

The peak with the arrow was our destination -- it appears lower because it is further away than the ones in the foreground. The other picture was taken at the top. The change in elevation was from about 5500' to just over 10,000.

We started hiking at 7, reached the summit at 10:47, and got back to the car a little after 3. What a day.

Thanks to Dave and all the Heiners for sharing this incredible tradition with us. Next year we will shoot for 4 M&M's to join the hike.

Soccer Rocks!

Saturday, November 17, Las Cruces High School Boys won the New Mexico State Soccer Championship by a 1-0 defeat over Eldorado!

It was a long, strange season. From the 11/22 Las Cruces Sun News:

Bulldawgs' soccer was solid in state title win

By Felix Chavez/Sun-News Reporter

Article Launched: 11/22/2007 12:00:00 AM MST

LAS CRUCES - What a ride it was for the Las Cruces High boys soccer team this fall.

There was the season-opening 4-0 loss to Hobbs that surprised many.

Then there was a 10-game winning streak, regular season wins against La Cueva, Gadsden and Sandia and then the crazy state tournament scenario.

Ultimately, the 19-4 Bulldawgs survived it all and last Saturday won the Class 5A state title.

"It was a long and strange season, but we had a great attitude and great team chemistry," Bulldawgs head coach Erik Tuchfarber said. "Our goal was to win the state championship."

The Bulldawgs entered the state tournament with confidence and in the new format of pool play, where the top team in each pool advanced to the semifinals. On the weekend of Nov. 1-3, the Bulldawgs, Cibola and Hobbs all finished 1-1 in pool play, which is where the confusion started. The Bulldawgs and Cougars both thought they advanced, LCHS because of goal differential and Cibola because of head-to-head competition.

But confusion reigned because changes in the tiebreaker rules were made late and not all the schools received that notification. Then a Cibola/Las Cruces High match was set up to settle the dispute, but LCHS was adamant that it should be the winner of the pool and appealed that decision, but was denied.

Ultimately, a replay of the pool with Hobbs, LCHS and Cibola was reordered and the Bulldawgs won the pool.

Then last weekend in Albuquerque, LCHS handled Sandia in the semifinals

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and beat two-time defending champion Eldorado in the finals.

"The season started tough for us with that 4-0 loss to Hobbs," said all-District 3-5A goalkeeper Victor Rodriguez, one of the state's best at his spot. "We were down after that loss, but we pulled it together and that says a lot about our team. Personally, the match that really stood out for me was the win against La Cueva. We showed we are for real in that game and we showed that we can compete against the best."

Las Cruces High also won the state title in 2004 and finished second in 1997 and 2002.

The Bulldawgs will have to replace nine seniors from this year's team, a group that Tuchfarber has enjoyed.

"It was a good senior group," the LCHS coach said. "We have some good kids coming back, but the seniors on this team did a lot for the program."

Las Cruces High played big when it had to. The wins against La Cueva and Gadsden came when both schools were ranked No. 1 and beating perennial powers Sandia and Eldorado in the state tournament in their home city was a tremendous feat in itself.

The Bulldawgs had several players step up big in the semifinal and final wins, including Nick Pena, Marc Ortega and Rodriguez. Rodriguez was part of two shutouts in the wins against Sandia and Eldorado.

"It was a great season for us," Pena said. "It'll be one that we remember for our whole lives. We had to battle and battle all year. But we believed in one another and we had the confidence that we could get it done."

When asked if this year's title team had as much talent as the 2004 one, Tuchfarber said this year's team had a great chemistry and a great will to win.

"Talent level wise, we didn't have as much as previous years," Tuchfarber said. "But this team played with good energy and after that opening loss of the year, they wanted to show they were better than that and they did."

Feels like a weekend!

It is Tuesday before Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) and it feels like a Friday. Both kids are home, Stu is here, and we have a rare moment of quiet.

In upcoming posts, topics will include:

• Pirates
• State Championship soccer team
  
• Thanksgiving
• Mountain climbing (weather permitting)
• Moving on (college, driving, professional)
  
• Other news

Hope you can join us.

The picture in the heading was taken in Canada at a lake fed by a glacier (name eludes me, thanks to a generous glass of Pepperwood Cabernet), in Alberta. This was part of Summer 2007 travel, when the kids got their 50th state (a feat Stu and I have yet only plans to match).