Lazy Sunday, New Mexico version

Today's weather: perfect. With all the rain, we have blooming yuccas. Profusely blooming yuccas. By the hundreds. The desert is different every year, and this is the closest to jungle we have ever gotten. Well, a desert jungle, anyway.

Birds are also profuse this year. A curved-bill thrasher is watching me as I write, a scaled quail is lekking nearby, and a cactus wren keeps scavenging the dog and cat hair we brushed from Rosie, Annie, and Nom earlier. I wonder about cactus wrens and using pet hair in their homes. Does this make their young less likely to understand that pets are predators? Not a big problem at my home, but could be in more suburban settings. Rattlers are already out (BIG one dead on Soledad Canyon road last week). Eagles are back, as are vultures. Cactus wren just stopped by for a dust bath. Wish I could photograph it, but it is just too far away.

Quincy, Stu and Jake have just a couple of weeks of classes left before they are off for the summer. Jake will spend the summer in Washington State, Q in Las Cruces. Summer projects are already lining up for Stu. Maybe some tiling and painting this summer.

Q has end-of-the-year rituals to complete over the next month: finals, banquets, AP exams, graduation, graduation party, etc. Quincy will celebrate with Emily. They met in kindergarten and have been friends since. Thanks, Katie, for your inexhaustible hospitality in letting us share the graduation celebration.

Limited biking next week. I will be in Albuquerque Monday and Tuesday for a meeting, and it is a little too far to ride. (but some really big hills between here and there!) The weather has still been cold in NM, but with luck our warm weather will come to stay this week.

I will be back in Delaware from May 15-20. My mother's lung cancer is back, and she is recovering from a repair of a compression fracture in her back. Besides, May is always a nice month in Delaware.

Book recommendation: Currently listening to Citizens of London, by Lynne Olson. About Edward R. Murrow, Gil Winant, and Avery Harriman and the role they had in bringing the US into WWII. Very interesting. I finally completed Atlas Shrugged, and although I thought the book was melodramatic and overwrought, I find that I miss the characters. But not really a book I would recommend to anybody.

Ipad display at Apple store

People were about three deep around the counters with Ipads at the Apple store today in Christiana Mall. Kent and I spent the afternoon strolling around. About the only store that has survived in the mall from when I lived in Delaware is Spencer Gifts. The Mall has gone decidedly upscale, with a Godiva, Williams-Sonoma, etc. During this trip, Kent and I also took in a movie and hit other retail outlets of northern Delaware. Traffic in this region makes me appreciate the open spaces of New Mexico.

I return to New Mexico tomorrow, with another trip planned soon. I was here at a great time, weather-wise, and it was good to see family (brother, sister, brother-in-law, nephew and his fmaily). Got lots of walking around Hockessin, but not much reading. And I set up the parent's wireless network, allowing me to blog from the guess bedroom (hi!).

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Quelle surprise!

Heading to Delaware today for a visit for the family. Stu surprised me with this yesterday for travel. I was VERY surprised, indeed!

Very fun to play with and a great travel companion.

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Cool cat.

The Nom cat put herself inside Stu's cooling coil. She is silly like that.

Happy Easter

Missed items from the time I have been ignoring the blog:

• Bataan went well. Stu and I were shooting for under 7 hours and we made it be about a minute. Shooting for under 6:45 next year. Jake hit under 6 hours.
• Jake had a week off for Spring Break and is back at Willamette for the rest of the semester. He finds it hard to believe he is nearly half through his undergraduate degree.
  
• Quincy was offered a WUE scholarship at Southern Oregon and is very excited about heading out there in September. Her birthday was Wednesday, and I no longer have minor children. She turned 18 the day before being counted on the 2010 census for redistricting.
• Poppies are beautiful this year. I should have a picture but have been too lazy to go out and get one.
• Golden eagles are back -- one soared over me on my way home Wednesday, and we saw another one yesterday. Hummingbirds are also back, along with swallows and turkey vultures.
  

Quincy also is interning at the Rio Grande Theatre, downtown. She is really enjoying the work and seems to be learning. Last week she ran the light board for the touring show of the Vienna Boys Choir (she says they have a sublime version of Hallelujah). She is becoming conversant with fly lofts and sound boards and fresnels.

Next week I will travel to Delaware for a family visit. I hope to spend quality time with Kent (this should mean at least a couple of movies) and see if I can be of some use to the folks.

And finally, we went hiking today and found the poppies pictured above and this artifact to the left. No, it is not a petrified elephant foot but rather a yucca cut down 2 summers ago along the fire break. Thanks, Phillip and Julz for the hike!