EF on YouTube

Doug sent us an interesting link.  It is an ad for his company in China that is on YouTube.  This is the English version, second link is the Chinese version that appears on the Chinese version of Youtube.  I forget that EF is worldwide because I am only familiar with it in China where the brand is familiar in big cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49rY91iZZ2A

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjM5NDU2NDky.html

By the way, I finally got my own kiln!!  Will got the wiring all set up and its ready to go

Boyce Thompson

I made the hour plus drive from Tucson, and my dear old (that's old as in--long time) friend, Elaine came from Apache Junction.  We met up for a fun day at Boyce Thompson Arboretum east of Phoenix.  What a pleasant place to spend a warm, sunny Arizona winter day.  There is every kind of cactus and desert flora imaginable in a carefully created Sonoran desert setting.  We spent the day gabbing and gawking.  Elaine even brought a picnic lunch that we enjoyed while watching the bright red northern cardinals that seemed to be especially abundant today.  Good time, good friend!

Back from the kiln

I'm having such a good time in my home studio and have actually been fairly productive of late.  Am still taking my stuff to the professional kiln to be fired in a reduction gas kiln.  This latest batch came back yesterday and I was pleased with the results.  Only I can see the flaws, and these photos make me look good!! 

Mirror Laboratory at UA

A group of friends went down to the University of Arizona yesterday to take a tour of the Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory. "Beneath the east section of the Arizona football stadium,  a team of enterprising scientists, engineers, and technicians are producing giant, lightweight mirrors of unprecedented power for a new generation of optical and infrared astronomical telescopes." That is a quote from their brochure--now, this "lightweight telescope mirror" is 8.4 meters in diameter, has taken three years to produce and weighs several tons.  They will make 6 more like this one for a large array that will go into the Giant Magellan Telescope that is being built in the mountains of Chile.  No one anywhere else in the world is doing anything like the innovative technology that happens right here in Tucson.  Our docent was so  knowledgeable and explained some very technical information in a way we could all understand.

 

Hiking Wild Burro Canyon

We hadn't been out for a good long hike in a long time so today we decided to do something about that.  Did the Wild Mustang Trail in the Tortolita Mountains north of town.  (Trail head happens to be in the parking lot of the new Ritz Carlton luxury resort at Dove Mountain.) Was a challenging trek but we managed to finish about an 8 mile loop through a really lush desert landscape with some amazing vistas.  Came across the remains of an old homestead near a spring in the canyon and wondered what a hard life it must have been in this desert.

Tragedy in Arizona

An unimaginable tragedy happened on a quiet Saturday morning in a busy shopping center in my neighborhood.  the national news wires picked up the story within minutes and literally the world learned the senseless details.  (Doug called from Hong Kong, a friend wrote on my facebook page from Australia.)
  A congresswomen is fighting for her life, 6 random people died including a 9 year old girl, a federal judge, 14 others wounded, a very troubled young perpetrator in custody.  Who can understand why or how it could have happened.
  Our church had a candelight vigil tonight to pray for Congresswomen Gabby Giffords, for all the victims, for all the families whose lives have changed forever.  We prayed to bring our community together, to take back our neighborhood from the evil of hatred.  It took the breath out of Tucson but we affirmed that God is bigger than all of this.

St Andrews Presbyterian Church --our own great church--is one of 30 remote sites that are hosting a satellite link to Calvin College's January Series.  Started yesterday with a live feed of Krista Tippett (of Speaking of Faith fame) in our sanctuary.  Its open to all of Tucson and yesterday's presentation drew a nice crowd.  Her topic was "Einstein's God: Conversations about Science and the Human Spirit."  Was very engaging and makes me want to run out and buy her book of the same title.  I love her radio program although I only catch it sporadically because of timing.  Today's speaker is Kelly Clark who is going to talk for an hour on "Faith and Freedom in Contemporary China".  He is philosophy professor at Calvin and will speak of China's religious contradictions.  Won't miss that one as of course, this perspective is of interest to us.   Don't know if we can make it every day but the speaking roster is full of good stuff to stimulate our minds.  Will be every weekday thru January at 10:30am.

A tame Colorado River

We left San Diego Monday morning--because it was raining again.  Chased the sunshine and found it in Yuma, Arizona!  Camped on banks of the Colorado River--actually we were in Winterhaven which is a tad across the border into California.  Then drove home today.  Already unpacked, unloaded and going through the mail.  An initial investigation revealed some frost damage while we were gone but nothing serious.  What got hit will recover just fine except a certain Crown-of-Thorns that is looking pretty wilty.  My roses survived, and looks like the lemons are fine too.

Another day at Balboa

Cool classic cars in California car cmuseum

Artist workshops and studios

Spreckles Outdoor Pipe Organ

(blame Will for this picture!)  Notice the water shooting out of my head.  Bet you can't do that!!

Today was back to Balboa Park.  We saw a lot of it the other day in the rain but was much more enjoyable today in  drier weather.  This is a great, old urban cultural park that is home to 15 museums, performing arts venues, gardens, street performers, a couple of restaurants, a working artist's market and more.  The stunning  Spanish-Renaissance style architecture is the legacy of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition hosted for the opening of the Panama Canal.  More buildings were added for the 1935 Worlds Exposition.  The San Diego Zoo is also here but we passed on it--that's another whole day.  Did the cultural stuff last time--the art museum and the natural history museum--Today we did the fun stuff.  Museum of Photographic Arts, Automotive Museum, featuring classic California cars, and the Spanish Village Art Center which isn't all that Spanish.  Various San Diego artisans demonstrating and selling thier unique crafts.  I waited for Will at the auto museum and he waited for me at the art center, although he found some neat stuff there also.

  At 2pm we made our way to the Spreckels Organ Pavillion for a free hour long organ concert on the world's largest outdoor pipe organ.    It has been played regularily since 1915. Concerts every Sunday, rain or shine.

  Speaking of.  .  .  it clouded up at the end of the day and began to rain again.  We were tired by that time anyway and ready to go back to RV park.  Went out to dinner at a local Italian restaurant that turned out to be the best dining experience of the week.  Mangia Italiano on Third street in Chula Vista, in case you are in town.

Birding in San Diego

Happy New Year!  We were up to watch the New Year arrive.  However, it was not by choice.  We would have preferred to just go to bed early.  We found a sushi restaurant for a fun dinner and then went to a movie theater to see, "The King's Speech."  It was great, by the way.  Don't know how historically accurate it is but a great story and great staging.  Its going to win some awards, I'm convinced.  Well, we came back to the RV to a very loud party going on next door.  We grumbled the new year in!

Spent New Years day outdoors.  Birded the Tijuana Estuary wildlife refuge this morning and drove out to Coronado Island on the way back.  Stopped under the Island bridge for a picnic lunch and then bicycled on some of the many bike paths that crisscross the San Diego shore line in the afternoon.  Finished the day with a soak in the park's very warm hot tub.