My weekend project

During the tourney last week, Jess had me at all the games with the camcorder. I told her that if they won, I'd put together a big highlight movie of all the footage. And they did! So I spent a lot of yesterday cutting this together and I thought I'd share it with all of you. I'm pretty proud of it.

Movie 1: The games

Here's part 2, the award ceremony and blooper reel.

Movie 2: Awards and Bloopers

I'd put them on the page, but they look better on their own page. And you can watch in full screen if you want. Enjoy.

-N

H1N1 is my nutritionist

So maybe one of you 'bioengineering' or 'doctor' types can chime in, but I have a theory.

When your significant other, the person you live with and spend all your time around, gets sick, their immune system goes to work killing off the virus, and what you get is all of these weakened, nearly dead virii flying off of their body and smacking into yours. And, much like an immunization, this weakened version of the sickness helps your body build up an immunity to the disease so that you don't get it. This explains why when either Jess or I gets sick, the other usually doesn't. This goes further to explain parents often get sick from their kids. Children don't have as developed an immune system, and so therefore the virii flying off of them are fully formed, and instead of getting immunized, you just get sick. I await my nobel prize with baited breath.

So I'm feeling a lot better. I was only out of work for about a day and a half, and am rapidly coming up to 100% strength. Jess, on the other hand, being the work-focused, highly driven (to save time off for vacation), girl that she is, has made quite a game effort to get into work and get something done, but has only been in for a few hours this week. She's actually taking the whole day off again to try and rest, and when I told her to sleep as much as she wanted and only call me when she woke up I didn't hear from her until 1:30. She's still got it pretty rough. Thank goodness for my husbandly immunity. Hopefully she'll be able to finish recovery over the weekend and start the week off fresh. She's mostly just been tired and worn down, no doubt from fighting off the dreaded H1N1.

Yeah, we're pretty sure that's what we got. The general symptom list is 'general flu-like symptoms', such as aches, tiredness, and nausea (we both got to use a bucket on monday night), and then also a fever, which Jess definitely had, (thermometer verified!) and I probably had (I felt really cold!). And it lasts for a long time. Unless your wife gets it first. Like I said, Jessie is still recovering, and is mostly just tired. My only lingering systems is a loss of appetite which, in some ways, isn't *all* bad.

So let me take a moment to brag about weight loss. I'd like to point out that most of my progress has been made gradually, step by step, and is accompanied by a wide variety of healthy foods, veggies included, mom. (V8 is good stuff!) I'm just eating less of it. Only a little bit of weight loss has come from the fact that I didn't eat anything heavier than a piece of bread for about three days there. For reference, my 'high weight' happened right after I got back from xmas. I was 230 pounds. Last time I weighed myself, (in the morning, which is always less, but it makes me feel better), I was at 210 lbs. I haven't been that skinny in a long time, and I even got my first 'hey, you look like you're loosing weight' comment, which always feels nice. The real discovery here is that I don't need to eat as much as I thought I did, even if it's good for me. Less still fills me up. Guess that's part of getting older. My exercise regimen has dropped off somewhat, as I've decided to stop doing Ving Tsun in favor of...something else yet undecided. And there was also the fact that I was sick for a few days there, but I'm actually excited to go running again soon. Imagine how much easier it will be! 20 lbs. Yay!

Progress still marches on in contractorland. Perhaps unsurprisingly the contractors discovered that they couldn't get access to the 3/4" pipes they wanted in order to run two showers at once. Just the 1/2" ones that were already there. So the cost of the project got bumped up a bit. Also, the shower pan they wanted to install turned out to not be available until just today, so they're a bit behind schedule, too. But nothing catastrophic, certainly, and everything has been accomplished with skill, good communication, and excellent craftsmanship. We're pleased. If you guys are very nice, I may post a few pictures later today when I get home. I think they'll get to start working on the tiles on Monday. Exciting!

Also, someone should remind me to write the story of the RSVP project I did back in college. It's been lost to history, a bit, but it was a fun class that I'll bet parents and grandparents alike would like to hear about. Cheerio!

-N

News from the sick ward

So remember how I mentioned that Jess caught some sort of bug over the weekend? Well guess who has it now, yes, that's right. Me. Both of us, technically, which is rough, because we'll be feeling better or worse as the day goes on and it's hard to tell which one of us needs to be taking care of the other. Neither of us has eaten much. I haven't eaten anything more substantial than toast in the past day and a half. Jess thought she might be able to make it into work today, but she woke up feeling crummy, so no dice.

The contractors are here, though, which I guess is both a good and a bad thing. We gave a house key to the 'main guy' who was supposed to be working on our house, but so far it's been a bunch of different people showing up, and so we're at home to let them in. It's just that we don't want to wake up at 8:00 AM when they show up, and they tend to be a little noisy while they work. Not too bad, though.

Anyway, the work is going well. I'll post some progressive images of all the different stages when the whole thing wraps up, but it's given me a pretty good look at what is going on behind my walls and under my floors. The shower pan isn't going to show up until Friday, unfortunately, so that means there will be a bit of a delay in everything getting done, but at least there is progress being made.

So back to being sick: we've sequestered ourselves in the guest bedroom while work is being done, and we have both the cats in here with us. I can tell I'm getting better already because I was hitting the Tylenol pretty hard yesterday and haven't even bothered to take any today, yet. Jess is still in a pretty bad way: she's been coughing a lot and said she felt dizzy this morning. She's asleep now, and all cuddled up with the kitties, but I may take her in to see a doctor if she doesn't get better soon.

Cheers,

-N

Happy birthday?!?

Today is my undergrad's 21st birthday. I normally count on him to demonstrate the passing of the seasons- he studies for midterms, takes holiday breaks, finishes finals and gets geared up for new semesters. We've been working together since he was a freshman, I've seen him make all kinds of growth in science, in his courses, in his attitude- but this one is throwing me for a loop. He was like a baby when we started working together- now he is 21?? How long have I been here? This is compounded by the premonition that he will graduate before I do (he'll definitely graduate in another year- I am far from setting a date yet). I'll still be at the grind stone in the time he has transformed from a dweeby kid to a scientist.

And then there is the whole matter of how to deal with being 21 particularly- I am pretty friendly with most of the undergrads here, but I find it much easier to treat him like a scientist without the details of his fratboy lifestyle. Pitt is no Penn State, as far as party schools go- but I still prefer to imagine that his interest in the brotherhood stems from their regular philanthropic gestures and the occasional PlayStation tourney rather then any other fringe benefit associated with fraternities. This well developed selective denial is just one of the thing my undergrad has taught me these last few years- and now I am feeling desperate to get the most out of our remaining ~16 mo together (if he gets this fellowship- otherwise I'll have another conniption fit when I realize he is going to graduate and abandon me here).

Sick Champion

The tournament for our Vegas Weekend is over, and Jess did great. There were four teams in her division, and they went 3 Wins-0 Losses during the preliminary round, and Jess played some excellent defense, especially considering that she had the flu.

I'm not sure where, but Jess had been feeling a little down all weekend, and Saturday night her throat was all scratchy from 'cheering too much' and she was tired. Well the next morning she still felt bad, but Motrin and Red bull got her through her early morning game. After that, though, it became obvious she wasn't just tired, she was sick. Her body kicked on the fever and she felt super, super cold. I piled the blankets on and gave her as much hug-based body heat as I could, but she was just miserable. I took her temperature as high as 101 degrees. (Fahrenheit, for you scientific types).

So the championship game came around and Jess couldn't skate, but she at least made it to watch the game and cheer on her team. Bundled up in coats and blankets, we watched as the team pulled out a victory, 1-0. The Hot Flashes won their division! Jess was all happy because she got to be in the victory pictures and hold the trophy, and they even gave her her own plaque! It's super-cool. (Is the 'award' type of plaque spelled differently? Plack?) Also I had told Jess that if they won the championship I would cut together all the footage I recorded into a neat video and post it up on the internet. And I will.

So Jess hung out in the locker room with her pals and did some victory cheers, and then we came home and Jess conked out, thankfully. Her fever has gone down and she's sleeping as I type this, but soon I'll get her up and start packing for the flight home. We fly at noon and tomorrow we have the contractors come by, so I'm going to clean up a little and get a room ready to keep the cats away from the workers.

Also of note to the family: I got the DVD of pictures from Xmas, and they're fantastic. I copied them all to my computer and left the DVD down here with the Vegas Family for them to enjoy.

'Like listening to Picasso'

Jane and I took a break from winter weather and stresses of ordinary life to attend a music performance at the Tractor Tavern near our home. The Tractor normally features rock - folk - country types, but this time the performer was Matt Haimovitz, an Israeli-born cellist now a music professor at McGill, I think.

In a tiny, cramped space next to the bar (Mac & Jack on tap), he came out to the tiny stage and opened by telling us that his instrument was 300 years old, built in 1710. He started by telling us that he would play one of Domenico Gabrielli's pioneering "Seven Ricercare" which were composed about the time his cello was made, and then something by a contemporary composer, Elliott Carter.

He repeated this pattern half a dozen times, and both the old and new music contained notes and chords I'd never heard before and finger and bow work I'd never imagined . . plucking, skipping, thumping. The comment in the title is Jane's idea and it captures the feel of the evening perfectly.

I thought of all you string players and wished you could have been with us.

I'm famous now

So, remember that time I went to that conference in Toronto on Canadian Science Policy? And I was all thrilled because I met this woman who wanted me to write something for her newsletter? Remember how that storied ended? With the January Issue of the SCWIST Newsletter- bottom of page 9!! Oh, and an obligatory rockstar dance in lab, of course. I think the appropriate thing would be to write back to that lady and thank her for her advice and her leg up, since that's what they tell you do for networking. Yes?

Further follow-up to that whole affair is the realization that I would benefit from having a writing portfolio (which means I need to do more writing). I don't want to be a freelance writer, but how else to you demonstrate communication skills? That's hard though. In fact, just thinking about it for months has gotten me no where. A couple of my coworkers (including Karen who I went to Toronto with) decided to start a weekly Writing Study Hall - at a coffee shop, after work. We tried it this week, and although we had a slow start it was a lot more then I have done in these interceding months. I've got a few ideas (a pitch, or a lead- what am I doing??) for things to write and ideas for places to send them. Now I need to convince someone else that this is a good use of their printed space, and get around to writing it. Having the support and structure of a weekly meeting will help a lot.

Otherwise, the cold is clearing up, and I can taste again- but not smell yet. Matt's big project for the weekend is to build a cat scratching post out of lumber and remnant carpet. We took Raoul to the vet this week, and he is as healthy as hateful of vets offices. We've got friends coming over to make egg rolls tomorrow, and going to watch the Vikings game with the local MN fan Sunday. And I got good results in lab, to boot!

NOTICE: I've made some unilateral cosmetic changes to the blog- the template and cover picture. The picture I love, so I had to update the template to keep up with the cuteness of the pic. I think it looks better, but if someone with a better eye wanted to further update to 'best,' be my guest.

Worth One Picture

I wanted to do this blog post with pictures, but I keep being busy at home, so I will replace said pictures with 1000 words. I hear there’s an equivalency there.

Further adventures in home ownership!

Project 1: Killing my lawn.

So I’ve noticed that when you put a brick down on the lawn and wait for a little while, when you come back the place under the brick is just dirt. I’ve also noticed that the grass we have in our lawn is a non-native type, and it is therefore pretty hard to keep it alive during hot, dry summers. So I’m trying to kill my lawn, in stages, and replace the grass with something native and easier to manage. The first step is, of course, killing it.

So I went out and bought a big tarp. It’s currently sitting over a patch of lawn in the backyard that is, already, pretty dead. I’m hoping it will get reduced to just dirt so I can get a bunch of seeds and give them a good watering to see how well the new grass will work out. I’ll keep everyone posted.

Project 2: New bathroom!

So after much soul (read: contractor) searching, Jess and I settled upon a contracting company to redo our bathroom shower. Our current shower is just a one-person stall with a tub next to it and a big ol’ closet that we don’t use on the other side of it. And Jess and I like to shower together. That’s right. I said it. I like seeing my wife naked. *What of it?* Also we go exercising together a lot and often need to shower at the same time anyway. So we’re getting the contractor to come by, tear out the closet and the old shower and give us a new shower that is much larger and has two shower heads. Premium!

Well the price was right and the company seems competent and dedicated, so we’re hoping for the best. They cover all the costs except for tile and the valves (and the glass, but that's later), which are aesthetic things that are probably best left to the customer. So over the past few weeks I’ve learned more about tiles and shower valves than I ever thought I would.

The tile is relatively easy. We went to a place called ‘The Tile Guy’ and looked that their selection of tiles, all of which were a lot less expensive than we would have thought. We weren’t sure which kind we wanted, though, so the guy at the store just let us pluck some tile off the walls and take it home to see which we liked best. Very kind of them. Calculating how many we would need, what with extras for waste and edging and the like, was a bit taxing, but I think we’ve figured it out.

Valves were more odd. For one, Home Depot had *nothing*. I even asked. Just some pipes and replacement handles. Lowes had many more, but nothing in the configuration we (initially) wanted. We were going to have one temperature spot and then a ‘transfer valve’ to put it out to one shower, the other shower, or both. We figured out a better scheme where we would have one temperature valve and two volume control valves so we could turn each head on or off as we saw fit. Well as it turns out that configuration, just with the valves and the handles, was going to run us $700. We could have gone around the corner and bought a couple of full shower sets for like $80 each, but for some reason ordering the parts individually was going to run us a lot higher.

Well I was feeling a little down about that until I went home. Ah, internet. Now that I knew what it was I wanted to buy, It was trivial to find it for much cheaper online. Dramatically so. We decided to change our minds again and just put in two separate shower systems, with temperature and pressure controls on each, and finding and purchasing those valves was a snap, and much cheaper than it would have been at Lowes. (Yes, dad, I’ve already told the contractors, they know.) So now I’m pretty much a professional when it comes to shower valves. Go ahead. Ask me anything.

Project 3: Hockey in Vegas (not a real home project)

Tomorrow (Thursday) Jess and I take off for Sin City once again, for her annual “Hockey tournament and meet up with old hockey friends from LA” gathering. Also it’s nice to visit some of my extended family out there, too. It’s always good fun. I know a lot of them, I get to come to the games, and Its always nice to have a long weekend. I’ll put up pictures as appropriate.

Also…I’m quitting Wing Tsun. I haven’t told my Sifu (teacher) yet, but I will tonight, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t read this. It’s a few things, but it’s mostly that Wing Tsun is not providing the challenge, or the exercise, that I want out of my martial arts. It’s all cool in practice, and it has its perks, but the main thing you’re trying to train is your sensitivity. Literally the ability of your arms to sense *very* subtle change and respond accordingly. It’s interesting and fun at times, but that’s not really what I want. I want to sweat, I want to hit things. I need a different kind of challenge. There have been other things, too, but Jess helped me decide on this, and so it’s back to the internet to search for another style to try. I’m hoping to find Judo somewhere. I need to learn how to fall. *That’s* a useful day-to-day skill.

Also, I’m losing weight! This whole ‘eating less’ thing seems to be working out for me. Jess tells me she can even tell the difference. When I got back from Xmas break I weighed 230 lbs. I’m currently around 215 most of the time. And I haven’t been that hungry, much, either. I just have to treat food a little differently and it seems like my body will take care of the rest. I want to go running, again, too. I want to see if it feels any different with the equivalent of a young toddler of weight off my knees.

So, yes, that’s the big news, and I’ve clocked in at just over a thousand words so far. There you go. Enjoy my wall of text, peace and hugs to all.

-N

It's official, I'm sick

Last week I came down with a sort of cold thing, very whine-about-able but I was pretty confident it would clear up if I could get some rest. Ample rest was applied to no avail, and today I went to the doc's to get a full service collection of meds. It was a bit reaffirming, I'm not being a baby, even the doctor thought I needed a get healthy gift bag. I told my boss (since I have been getting zero work done with the constant kleenex breaks) and he told me to take it easy, and put off science for a bit. Wow. I am trying to be optimistic about it- I still feel pretty crummy, but now that might stop eventually.

I haven't managed to do much in all this time (ergo, no blog updates). I did get in for another bioethics discussion. It went, um, Ok. I had been worried no one would have anything to say (I should have known better), they had lots to say, and were reasonably articulate. And then we started talking about eugenics- the rules of online civility hold in the classroom, when you start comparing people (even distant, hypothetical future people) to Nazis, you are going to start a flame war- and we got a bit derailed.

However, the critical moment for me was the end of the session, I was supposed to collect their discussion questions for what they wanted to talk about next time- I collect the questions, they do the research, we all discuss. They had really good questions, the next discussion should be interesting and productive. I am grateful to be piloting this with these students- I am learning a lot about how to do this. I haven't figured out how I should act as the discussion leader- totally neutral or being a good example of sharing my biased but well informed opinions? Currently I am shooting for neutral but having a hard time biting my tongue- so neutral is with limited success. I am also having a hard time knowing when to correct my students. The right answer is probably "anytime they are wrong," but it is hard to be tactful. and confident. I am learning a lot, and not wasting anyone's tuition collars to do it- phew! The follow-up is in two weeks, and then after that I get to survey them about how they think the class went. Eek!

Down Under and Other Heroics

While our kids were home we got quite a bit of work out of them. Noel was especially heroic and even had a superhero outfit for the job. [Shown here with trusty side kick] All this was required for insulation installation underneath the masterbath. The goggles didn't work too well since they fogged up during super efforts. Sorry we don't have any "after" pictures of the dirt in the eyes and smudges on the face.

Other photos that are missing are Sandlin and Matt in super painting uniforms. And everyone with flour on hands and faces for the traditional Crub Feast Cook-a-thon.

And if you want to see a few more Juneau photos here is the link to Ofoto.

Masterbath Remodel

We spent another Saturday tiling the bathroom floor and are nearly finished. So we thought we should post some pictures. This shows the bamboo flooring in the dressing room just off the master closet.

Here is a picture of our tile pattern. It is most forgiving since it is on a diagonal with an small black tile offset although the black squares are supposed to be 2 by 2 inches there have been a few that were "custom" fitted. We have not grouted yet so you can still see the morter. The grout will be a dark gray so everything will kind of blend together and the pattern will be harder to discern in photos. You can't tell but there is floor warming under the tile. Though it is not really a heater it will keep bare toes nicely comfortable. The room's heat will be supplied by a towel warmer/space heater that will be on the wall on the right side of this picture. We will have it connected to our baseboard heater by our plumber. This photo on the left is the toilet room. You can see the tiny corner sink we installed. We plan to put a shelf next to the sink for essentials and a towel rack but the main sinks are outside of this room so all our other supplies will be in the cabinetry that goes with the double sinks.


I did not expect this project to take so long and to be such a time consuming process. But it really is satisfying to see the progress we have made and know that the plans we had in our head look pretty good. We still have quite a bit to do; we haven't begun the shower tiling yet or the tub surround. So we continue to have something to do on weekends for quite a while yet. We will try to keep you updated as we make more progress. Hope you are all having great weekends.

Sledding Party

It's been snowing for more then a week straight. The conditions this weekend positively forced us to wrangle up some friends and sleds and head to the park. The natural amphitheater of the park was already polished to an icy patina, and a dynamic collection of runs that all ended in a small trail heading into the woods made for a good afternoon. Or as the Headlines might have read, "Nice Day Enjoyed by Many."

I got quoted by a shivery journalist trying to get me to say that the trees were dangerous and should be removed (I might not have let my own small children down there on a saucer, but I am proficient sledder. And there ought to be trees in park). He, of course, over-paraphrased the nature of our conversation- a middle school kid collided with a tree and was hauled out by paramedics. We heard he had a concussion, but I didn't feel like telling the reporter that. The result is the very tepid article. We capped off our sledding adventures with hot cider and pizza back at the apartment, complaining about our sore sledding and laughing muscles. Maybe adulthood is fun after all!

---UPDATE---
Good thing we got there when we did. Sledding is now BANNED in that park. Madness!

Post-Xmas update!

I didn’t really write anything extra special on here for Christmas, but needless to say, it was a blast. I’ve never really considered myself all that good with food, so it feels really good to be known around the family for my delicious bread. Of course, now Jess is learning how to make it, too, so I have to start learning different bread types if I’m going to stay ahead of the curve.

My Christmas present to Jess, well, one of them anyway, is already installed and working great. I got some programmable thermostats so that we can warm up the house before we wake up and before we get home. It’s been extra useful because as I speak, the outside temperature is 27 degrees. It’s been really nice to keep the house warm while we’re around. It would be pretty freezing in the morning otherwise.

The other highlight of our post-holiday festivities was our “go out and see what’s cheap on post holiday sale” shopping. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any good fake trees or lights, but I did get this.



It is enormous, and silly, and currently hanging up in my office at work. I’m silly.



The other thing that we got was a ham. On sale after everyone was done with their food, we decided to give an Alton Brown recipe a try. I was reminded of its deliciousness because Jess got me about two pounds of Alton Brown DVDs for my gift, and I’ve been slowly, and with much delight, going through them. I think I’ve found a fish recipe Jess might like. It involves cheese and cream. Yum. Anyway, the ham crust involved first mustard, then brown sugar, then a spritz of bourbon, which we replaced with coke because we don’t have any around the house and they don’t sell any small enough for us. And then finally, gingersnaps. I’ve been having Ham for dinner every night this week. Luxury.

I’m also trying to fix my diet. I’ve been eating less, mostly. I’m hoping I can work out a food routine that I can stick to for the next, you know, ‘forever’. Diets only work if they become lifestyles. Ham for dinner every night might not count, but in my defense, I’ve been eating a lot less than I would have otherwise.

We’ve been getting some more bids on our shower work, and it looks like we’ve found a good bid. With any luck we may be getting this thing underway pretty soon. It won’t be as impressive a job as Mom and dad have been dong, but if it gets us what we want out of a shower, we certainly won’t complain. I’ll take some pictures so everyone can see.

Micro news! Jess got a nice bruise on her calf at Roller hockey. It doesn’t look too bad, but that just means that it hurts a lot. The cats are laying with us. I think they like the warmth. There’s a big UT football game going on now. It looks like UT is going to lose, which means I will probably be surrounded by a lot of unhappy co-workers tomorrow.

Sleep!

-N

New Years in New York

Matt and I have a long standing tradition of spending New Year's Eve in a low-key, domestic setting- it helps to get a head start on the long standing habit for all the other days of the year. This year, being back in Pittsburgh after an awesome trip to Juneau, I figured we'd stay in, maybe hang with a couple friends. But the couple friends Matt had in mind just moved to New York. Nothing doing but we drove out to New York city to sit in their living room, and see the back side of the fireworks launched from Time Square.

Matt's BFF-since-forever just moved to the Bronx, where his wife (also a PhD in Biology) works at Albert Einstein. Since it has been years since we saw them last, Matt has been anxious to make the trip to see them. And meet their cuter-than-the-Gerber-baby 9mo-old son. Actually, he wasn't all that anxious to meet the baby, because he (like me) is a little scared of babies. You never know when they will leak or shriek and they are so fragile... but this little guy had a heart-melting smile that he loves to use on new people and dynamic use of the 'word' "Dah." Even Matt warmed up to him.

Forgive me for being obtuse, but I had it in my head that babies don't make good tourists. Despite the wide-load cheeks, he actually enjoys the subway. It is a great place to smile at new people (and everyone on the subway was always looking at him). On New Year's Day, we went into Manhattan to see Grand Central station, Times Square, Rockefeller Center and Central Park. There was still confetti drifting off the patios and rooftops in Times Square. Everything about NY is so iconic- I felt like I was drifting between movies and news reels! How outrageously-exactly-more-than-I- imagined was New York? A a street performance group got on our subway to break dance between stops- and they were REALLY good! Their tumbling distances were mapped perfectly pole to pole. The next day, we went to meet the French Lady- in the withering cold we opted for an enclosed Stanton Island Ferry trip, absorbed some Pizza, and came across while watching the sunset light up the Manhattan skyline. We had a lot of fun on our short visit, but it certainly highlights how much more there would be to see on our next trip- which hopefully will be soon.

I've compiled an album here with more photos. Let me know what you think! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

The winter weather in our area is frequent topic of conversation in our household because Jane struggles with what we used to call "winter blues" but now has a variety of more formal names, because the lack of sunshine does seem to cause measurable problems for some folks.

I say that I was born here and usually enjoy cool, cloudy weather.

But even I had to admit that the forecast in the paper this morning for the next few days was a bit much. The high temperature for the next five days is predicted to be 48, 49, 48, 50, and 49.

The descriptions are:

• Decreasing showers, sun breaks
  
• Increasing clouds, rain
  
• Rain at times
  
• Scattered showers
  
• Decreasing showers
  

I think you have to have a degree in meteorology to understand the difference between "scattered showers" and "decreasing showers" and of course "sun breaks" is a term invented in Seattle and used nowhere else because of trademark protection by the Convention and Visitors' Bureau.

Anyway, I hope you all have sunshine, of many kinds, in your lives in 2010!