weird games your eyes play on you

one of those emails that gives me the heebeejeebies...(click to enlarge)

Hiking Scotts Run, VA

Scotts Run trail leads to the Potomac River. The run is actually pretty clean water...but it empties its waterfall into the "less-than-clean" Potomac River. South of Great Falls, North of Chain Bridge rapids. The falls look bigger than they seem here, drop is probably 10 feet.

Riley on a fallen tree trunk over the Potomac.

Lake Tahoe (Nevada side)

Had a meeting out in Tahoe, and this was on our route back to the airport.

Our chariot of fire...that climbed up to over 9,000 feet. There were still snow banks 5-6 feet tall, in the beginning of May. Funny thing - we stayed in a casino that overlooked the lake (of course my room faced the parking lot) - but the first time we left the casino was when we were done with the meeting altogether - i.e. we never left the hotel (suppose the casino designers did their job well). Sad - in this beautiful place and never got to take a good long time and look around. Arrived late on Wednesday (loooooooong story about that - later), meetings (in hotel conference center) Thursday and Friday, and the only restaurants were in the hotel! So, Friday afternoon we took the scenic route back to the airport - which was the first clean outdoor air we breathed all week.

Didn't win big this time at the craps table...oops. Need to go back to Carson City and Reno where the tables are a bit friendlier. :-)

porch en fuego!

The porch at my folks' house caught on fire the other day. Yikes! Mom was drinking her morning cup of coffee at the window that overlooks the deck, and saw what she thought was smoke coming up from the side. She ran out and half of the side was smouldering & flames coming off the top. So she runs inside, yells to my dad (who is in the shower) - "the deck is on fire!" He comes running downstairs in a towel and they both grab fire extinguishers to put out the fire on the deck, then turn the hose on the rest of the wood to make sure it was out. Clearly, after 38 years, the couple that fights fires together, stays together.

So here's what they think happened - lots of rain came down over the course of a few days, some got into one of the deck lights that were mounted on the sides, and shorted out the wiring; this smouldered throughout the night, and had caught fire in the morning, so it was extremely lucky this didn't go any further. It's approximately 8 ft. long, 1 foot tall segment that was burned through. There is a hole in the deck where the light that caught fire fell onto the platform and began to burn through the wood. very, very lucky it wasn't worse!

Zoo visit

From today's visit:
Sleepy cheetah...

Hangin around with gibbons...

Lion wakes up from a nap...

Hungry tiger...

Panda play time...

Earthquakes a-plenty

This picture is taken of the seismograph reading the earthquakes occurring real-time in Reno, 4/26/08, approx 10 PDT. About 350 earthquakes registered from 4/24-5/1 (largest = 4.7). Unique earthquakes, in that they haven't been "building" up the shaking, instead they "pop" and shake, and peter out. (See yellow lines below). There are several faults in the area, and it's not clear which ones are causing the earthquake. It was bizarre to watch - some quakes you can't feel, though they are registering and it seems like you should be since you see it on screen.

Heading back 3 more times in the next few months...yay!

Carson City's Finest Signs & Bumper Stickers

In the parking lot of the casino...apparently it's such a big problem that people have to be reminded to not bring their dogs, lest they lose track of time.

Don't make me break out the flying monkeys!!
(I don't get it either