Family, Friends, Fish

Lots of good times this past week. Matt and Lupita and Ricky visited, and we got to hang out with the 'Beek kids for the weekend.

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas. We had enough snow one morning for a miniature snowman.

A trip to the aquarium and botanic gardens was a hit with kids and adults alike.

Abigail was off building her gingerbread house, so she didn't get in any pictures. Sorry, Abigail! To make up for it, here's a picture of your hat -- I finished it today.

Ricky wasn't sure about tio Chad at first (tio Chad does have some scary facial hair right now), but soon they were fist-bumping like old pals. We found it amusing that Ricky's fist-bump could be interpreted as an insult:

Merry Christmas to all!

Stripes

I've been into stripes lately.

In the living room:

In the dining room:

On Chad's face:

Streaky bleached stripes in my hair:

with blue stripes underneath:

Well, we were going for blue, but it turned out a sort of blueish-green. And I only got to enjoy my mod fairy-princess look for a few days before it faded to a barely noticeable greenish blonde. Pink next time?

Merry Baking

We had a merry bakefest last weekend. 3 kitchens, 7 bakers, 6 kinds of Christmas cookies, and hot cocoa with marshmallows! Thanks so much to Susie, Katie and Kristin for opening their kitchens.


That was Saturday. It's Wednesday now, and Chad and I have already eaten all our cookies!

ufo sighting

I saw a ufo above ABQ tonight at 5:45 pm (Dec 4). It was a pretty bright light that flew northwards very fast (if a plane travels at 1 velocity unit, it was probably 10 velocity units). Before it reached the horizon, the light vanished. I heard no sounds associated with it, and it seemed to be flying at about the same height as airplanes do in the area. At the time a large helicopter was hovering near the Sandia mountains. At 8:20 pm, a helicopter was flying in the area again.

Three other people have confirmed what I saw.

Sorry, no pictures as I was on my commute home.

That is all.

enjoying cyclocross racing

Did my second cyclocross race yesterday. It was much more successful than my first of one week ago. Last week's race was at night in the cold on the snow. Here's a photo from my buddy Moscaline. See his blog from Nov 25th for a nice report and pictures from his race.
I'm running on the wrong side of the bike, but at least I'm staying warm enough.

Yesterday, Jill had errands to run, so she wasn't there to photograph me. I stayed for the first lap of the A race. Here's how it's supposed to be done.

On the first short hill of my first race, my chain got jammed on my frame. It took a minute or two to get it fixed, at which time my fellow racers were nowhere to be seen. I had hoped to learn a few tricks from them by watching them go first, but didn't get this chance until after a few laps.

In the second race, I had no bike troubles and slightly better skills. Also there was daylight and warmth. As a result, I did much better. Results are found here: http://www.nmcross.com/nmcs7.htm