Friday


6
Jan 17

She shoots …

No, this was not spooky at all this morning:

coat rack

My office has the three coat hooks behind the door. I’m not sure why there are three. It is a small office — just me in here — and it surely won’t get three-coats-cold. But it has been plenty chilly the last few days. So gloves and a scarf came to work today, as did the heavy leather jacket. And so I used all the hooks. Didn’t want any of them to be left out, lest the mishape a coat, so I used them all and created an unholy beast.

But at least its a warm and inviting one.

Here’s something else a bit weird. In the microwave the cook sensor found something it didn’t like last night:

toes

Oh, sure, we made scissors jokes and Big Lebowski jokes and then this morning I noticed the other corner of the clock display. Clearly the magnetron inside knows something is wrong. You wonder if the cathode or the anode has the bigger problem with cooking toes.

(I had to read a bit about magnetrons to make a joke, so it seemed like there should be some internal conflict there.)

This morning, Allie is securing the perimeter from birds:

toes

The Yankee put a bird feeder right outside that window and it seems to be working for everyone. This is the morning routine now: push a hooman (me) off the bed, enjoy the heated blanket for an extra half hour after he gets up, set up camp guarding the library windows from the offensive birds.

Those birds are a morning problem. They don’t seem to be an issue later in the day.

She does a great job keeping the birds outside.

At work we got to tour the Cuban Center at Assembly Hall. There’s a giant green screen room and some high end broadcasting gear going in. They are building up facilities to run all of the video screens in the athletic facilities from there. The original scoreboards are on display outside of the newly renovated gym. Inside the actual court there are 28 cameras making the new FreeD technology. You’ve seen this, the cameras in certain venues where you can see a key play in the game from a revolving series of angles.

It takes two people to run, a pilot and a navigator, and right now there are 11 people in the world that know how to do this.

Eleven. That’s the legitimate number. And if you want to get into the technology, IU is the only place in the world to do it. Soon, major soccer leagues and Major League Baseball will have this technology in all of their stadiums. And it all started with a small Israeli company, recently purchased by Intel, and the Cuban Center here at IU.

Also, being Indiana, there’s basketball, of course:

By transitive properties The Yankee is now a five-time national champion.


30
Dec 16

Another Christmas party

We had time for a quick run this morning before getting in a car and driving to New Jersey for the pentultimate Christmas of the season. (We’re quite fortunate in that way, to have so many groups of people to celebrate with and so much family that wants to enjoy a bit of the season with us.) This was one of my views as I turned back toward my toward a warm house after an icy, 24-degree three-miler:‬

Sammi, The Love Dog, at New Jersey Christmas:

The Muppets’ “The Christmas Wish” was playing in the background.

Also, this is just the coolest:

That’s The Yankee’s father-in-law’s set. It’s a serious deal, taken quite seriously.


23
Dec 16

Fraa-gee-lay … it must be Italian …

There is a window downtown where this is burning brightly right now.

It’s a major award.


9
Dec 16

Isn’t that thoughtful?


18
Nov 16

The leaf and limestone

Sounds like the English name for something, doesn’t it? “I was just over at The Leaf and Limestone and … ”

Anyway, I reached down to flatten that leaf and the stone, the top of a low retaining wall, had a coolness. The sun wasn’t warming it. And so, I suppose, it begins.