6.4 pounds, 16.5 inches...

We would like to announce that we have "cut the cord" on a sizable zucchini in our garden. (What were YOU thinking of?) It needs to ripen just a little more on one side, but as you can see we will take good care of it. We also processed and froze our pumpkins. I like the pumpkin picture with the bee in the blossom - it is sort of a before and after picture. We finally cut Kris's big cabbage, described in the July 27 entry. It did not get much wider, but it got taller. It is supposed to be some sort of 50 pound variety, but ours is big enough at 17 pounds. We gave about half away, froze a bunch, and made cole slaw.

We also stopped by the Lakeview Museum today for a reptile show. No, we did not get another pygmy African hedgehog like we did at a reptile show in Chicago some dozen years ago; Kris's friend Sam was exhibiting some of his reptiles and amphibians there. It was nice, I found out that the rattlesnake that I saw in the wild in Wyoming some 25 years ago was probably a prairie rattlesnake and the snake I saw in Kickapoo creek a couple months ago was probably a northern water snake (nonvenomous, like pretty much all other snakes in central Illinois).

Some unhappy news. Our governor has decided to close several state attractions soon. Following are Illinois state historic sites that will be shuttered Oct. 1:* Dana Thomas House, Springfield* Hauberg Indian Museum at Blackhawk State Historic Site in Rock Island.* Lincoln Log Cabin, Charleston.* Lerna David Davis Mansion, Bloomington* Fort de Chartres, Randolph County* Vandalia Statehouse, Vandalia* Bishop Hill, Henry County* Carl Sandburg, Galesburg* Cahokia Courthouse, Cahokia* Bryant Cottage, Bement* Jubilee College, Peoria County* Apple River Fort, Elizabeth* Fort Kaskaskia, Randolph County* Pierre Menard Home, Randolph County

The following Illinois State Parks will close effective November 1:* Castle Rock State Park, Oregon* Lowden State Park, Oregon* Hennepin Canal Parkway State Park, Sheffield* Illini State Park, Marseilles* Rice Lake Conservation Area, Canton* Channahon Parkway State Park, Channahon* Gebhard Woods State Park, Morris* Hidden Springs State Forrest, Strasburg* Kickapoo State Park, Oakwood* Moraine View State Park, LeRoy* Weldon Springs State Park, Clinton

I'm really unhappy about this stunt. I'm hoping to make it to Jubilee College State Historic Site in the next few weekends. We had thought about going this summer and never got around to it; we have not been there in years. I happened to stop at Moraine View State Park this past spring - it was nice. Some of these other places I was hoping to see, too. Maybe Illinois should charge more entry fees like Wisconsin or maybe Governor Blagojevich should stop wasting so much money on his "commutes", see http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/22/politics/main2968669.shtml.

Requiem for a summer

Kris is at soccer practice now so I will try to update the blog a bit. Well, classes started for Karen and I yesterday, summer is over from an academic standpoint. For me it seems like this past summer was almost like a copy of two summers ago. We took no super-sized trips halfway across the continent like the trip to Seattle last year (my research contact is no longer there and the price of gas is holding us back). We did travel a fair amount regionally...to Wisconsin, southern Minnesota, and places in Illinois. Karen traveled to Virginia at the beginning of summer for her grandmother’s birthday, and I had business trips to southern Indiana and western Washington (so I for one day I got my mountain fix). I have attached a picture of a Door County sunset.

Summer was busy in the lab, too. I had, at a few times, six people at a time in the lab, but often it was four or less. Four seems about as much as I can handle. Karen had lots of summer classes to keep her busy. Karen and Kris visited a lot of places locally as part of a science scavenger hunt program held every summer. I have attached a picture of Kris using a fire hose during a recent visit to a National Guard base. Kris also had soccer camp and piano and swim lessons.

It has been a relatively cool and wet summer, with very few 90+ days, unlike the past few years. It has been great for the garden. We are now harvesting tomatoes, zucchini (still), carrots (Bugs practically inhales them). Our huge sunflowers are well on their way toward going to seed. Our remaining lettuce plants are being let go to seed, and our last pea pods have also been turned to seed. Our second pumpkin is ready for cutting, and we count two unripe ones on the vines. Kris’s cabbage is big. We had lots of walnuts drop off the trees, but they all went bad. We have picked strawberries, black raspberries, and blackberries. As you can see in the pictures, the garden is a real mess now compared to early on, but has been producing anyway.

A little while ago outside a queen ant and drone ant landed on my laptop computer keypad and…uh…well…I guess this is an odd variation of mating scenes on the computer. Sorry, no pictures of that.

Anyway, with all the nice nature pix that I have taken this summer, one pic that really stands out to me is one of the freshly painted house. We barely finished by July 1, but I was worried that we would take all summer. Karen and Kris helped get the job done, it looks good, and it is holding up well so far.

As I mentioned yesterday, classes have started and the campus is full of fresh faces. Last night we held a chemistry demo show out on the quad. Though I was disappointed in the turnout (thirtysome people) considering how hard we advertised it, the show went OK, and the science building is still standing. My favorite part was the way the sound of the exploding hydrogen balloons echoed off the surrounding buildings; it sounded like thunder rolling.

Watched Obama's speech while I worked on this. Very impressive in many ways, but there are some sticking points. According to the statistics I looked up, less than 25 days of U.S. abortions in 2007 would equal the population in that big stadium.

Weekend stuff

Friday my parents came down from Green Bay to visit. Among other weekend activities, on Saturday we all watched Kris's soccer game (another loss), had dinner with the Bosmas, and installed a new ceiling fan in my bedroom. Today after my parents left for home, I spent lots of time at the annual rock and mineral show a few blocks away. Most of the inexpensive stuff I have accumulated over the past thirty years, but there was some really cool very expensive stuff to look at. I think the global market for fossils and minerals is really opening up (especially from China). I was able to get a tentative ID on a fossil (a sort of fruit/seed) that I found near a hotel in eastern Montana three years ago. Here is a pic from eastern Montana (not the same location or formation, but it I thought it looked cool). Watched the closing ceremony of the Olympics tonight while I organized my rock purchases and other paperwork (classes start Wed). It was pretty spectacular.

Thermite birthday candle?

I am getting ready for an outdoor chemistry demo show next week and I tried my first thermite reaction. This is a classic reaction between aluminum metal and iron(III) oxide to produce aluminum oxide and iron metal, but the reaction is so hot that the iron produced is a liquid. I used pretty much the classic setup described in Shakhashiri's books. You can see the iron dripping out of the clay flower pot on the stand into the sand bucket. In the other picture you can see the glow of the cooling iron. The thermite reaction has been used for a long time for both peace and war applications, but it must be shown a LOT of respect. For a movie of a much larger quantity of thermite destroying a car, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjLgzgflCk8&feature=related

Today is my 39th birthday and my 15th anniversary. It was a busy working day, but went well. Some students gave me a big Happy Birthday cookie at one of my meetings - apparently Karen tipped them off. I missed Kris's second game tonight (meeting), but Peoria Christian School lost again. The Brazilian men's beach volleyball team is playing at the Olympics, their shirts say "BRA", too (see a few posts ago). That could be really confusing!

Morning picture

Shot this morning on the way to school. Things have been busy getting ready for classes.

Hope is the Thing with Feathers

At a conference today the president of Bradley University quoted a piece of an Emily Dickinson poem:

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

-----------------------------

I suppose it is better than the pterodactyl of cynicism....

Soccer Game

Kris's first day of fourth grade went well. This evening was her first soccer game of the season, and it was a loss. There are a lot of new kids on this third and fourth grade girls team, and I think this is going to be a rebuilding year.

Some Olympic silliness tonight. The U.S. and Brazilian bikini teams were playing volleyball, er, I mean the volleyball teams were playing in their two-piece outfits. What was amusing was that the Brazilian team had their country abbrevation on the top piece of their outfits "BRA". It looked like they left some sort of directions on their clothing. Another bit of silliness was how they mix units on TV. In a men's volleyball game the announcer talked about the court dimensions in meters and the net height in feet.

More silliness. The Muppet "Beaker" sings Ode to Joy. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpcUxwpOQ_A

Illinois State Fair and Fossil Hunting

Yesterday Karen, Kris, and I went to the Illinois State Fair. We got to Springfield about 11:30 am and left about 8 pm. The place was much bigger than I expected and we could see how one could spend much more time there. There are certainly ways to spend lots of money there, but we worked to keep costs down (sometimes sucessfully, sometimes not). Fun things we did included:

- seeing a Wild West Show (the whip guy was funny)

- Kris shot arrows in a bowhunting expo (she selected a raccoon as a target, which Karen and I supported)

- Kris climbed a rock wall and did quite well

- rode a cable car over the park

- picked up flyers and other free stuff (compact fluorescent bulbs, water bottles, pencils, and yardsticks)

- got museum fatigue from all the exhibits that we saw

Today was Kris's last day of summer break. She starts fourth grade tomorrow at Peoria Christian School (Miss Gray is her teacher). Classes start on Wednesday, August 27 for Karen and I. We cut our first pumpkin today and our tomatoes are doing well; we are still getting other veggies. After church we went to Tyroni's Italian Buffet and stuffed ourselves. Afterward, Karen and Kris played a Nancy Drew game together on the computer and went and played in the woods. I picked another 2/3 gallon of blackberries and then went fossil hunting. The crinoid stem hotspot I found this past spring is probably surrounded by poison ivy and a little tapped out so I headed down into other ravines. At the bottom of a dry creek bed I found another small hotspot, this time of plant fossils. I found my first small fern fossil nearly ten years ago a couple of months after I moved out here, and since then I have found other Pennsylvanian period plant fossils. Today I found some of my best plant fossils; some had branching features and there was a species that I don't think that I have found before. The rocks in the attached picture feature at least two species of ferns and two species of horsetails. Lots of fun! I have some "extras" if anybody wants them. I don't think any of this stuff is museum quality, but kids and rockhounds might want them. Maybe I will donate them to the rock and fossil show next weekend. This annual event is at Itoo Hall, a supper club just a few blocks from here.

Canoeing Kickapoo Creek

For years I have thought it would be interesting to raft/canoe/kayak Kickapoo Creek, the waterway about a mile or so from my house. At one point people were trying to develop it into a canoe route. Earlier, this week a colleague (Edward Flint) and his daughter ran down part of the creek and it went fine, so today he and I ran the same stretch. It was fun! There were plenty of obstacles (logs, sandbars, tires...) and I forgot how to canoe, but Edward was very patient and the weather and scenery were great. We did sight something strange...a croc! Wouldn't you think they would be more common in the waterways of the south than in Peoria? The picture of the croc is in the lower left of the picture below. Another observation: toward the top of the picture you can see dried weeds in the tree branches - that creek level can vary quite a bit throughout the year.

Tonight we went swimming at the Lakeview Aquatic Center for the first time, because a state representative (Leitch) opened up the pool for free for kids who read at least 8 books this summer. Kris easily did that, but what surprised me was that there were not that many people there. Here Kris is pefecting her cannonball form.

Mt. St. Helens

A week ago today I stopped at Johnston Ridge Observatory for a good view of Mt. St. Helens. I did not see many other mountains in the short trip to the Cascades, but I just had to visit this spot. Here are a couple of many, many pix that I took on this visit. The small cloud above the left (east) rim of the crater in the picture with the lupines in the foreground appears to be dust from a rocklide on the crater wall. The other picture is a closeup of the crater.

Kris and the skunk

Kris is having a busy last week of summer. Soccer practice has started, and swim lessons have ended. Yesterday she and Karen went to Wildlife Prairie State Park, and she got to pet a (descented) skunk. Tonight she and Karen went to a Peoria Chiefs game (they lost to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers). Tomorrow, she will do some science experiments with Karen and some other kids, and Friday she goes swimming with friends.

In other news, Tuesday Morning Quarterback is back on ESPN.com. Easterbrook's lengthy column this week takes a look at the Favre/Packers split, something that is still a painful topic in the household. See: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/080812&sportCat=nfl

Cue "Jaws" theme...

Dace took me sailing on Elliot Bay last Friday afternoon. While we were sailing along, Dace saw a dark triangle in the water ahead of us. I steered a little to starboard to investigate, and Dace grabbed the camera to shoot the dolphins fin. As we got closer we noticed that the fin did not really move around much, enabling us to get pretty close. We also noticed that the fin did not change in thickness as it tapered to the point. Finally we got close enough to realize that it was...a piece of wood. A piece of cut lumber sticking out of the water, taking on a triangular shape. Instead of "Nessie", should we place "Ellie" with the sasquatch in the hall of Pacific Northwest legends?

Arlan

One of the many things I got to do on the recent Seattle trip was visit my brother Dace, sister-in-law Susan, and nephew Arlan. Arlan will be turning 2 in September and is pretty cute. He did not remember me from year ago, but he overcame his shyness after a while and even gave me a hug before he went to bed.

Blackberries

The first pic of the day is a patch of those fantastically huge blackberries that they have in the Pacific Northwest. These were near the Columbia River in Vancouver, WA (featured in the other pic). They are also fantastically well-defended by big thorns - I refer to these plants as razorberries. I have been a little antsy because I know we have blackberries ripe nearby my house here in Peoria; I finally got to them today. Though they were still smaller than the ones shown in the pic, this is probably the best year that I have ever had for picking blackberries here. Some were pretty big, and there were lots of them. In two hours I picked about 2/3 of a GALLON. I'm hoping to make blackberry jelly out of this.

Back in Peoria

Got back home this evening from the whirlwind tour of western Washington, featuring productive meetings, a visit to Dace, Susan, and Arlan, and that lovely scenery (I did not see Mt. Rainier, but I have lots of pictures of other things). These two pix are of downtown Peoria and Bradley University shot as the plane was landing. Clicking on the pix will reveal clearer images.

"Vancouver, Vancouver..this is it!"

The title refers to geologist David Johnston's last words last radio transmission before he was killed in the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Today as part of my trip I had the priveledge of visiting the David A. Johnston Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) in Vancouver. It is not a visitors center, but a base of operation for the USGS to work across the Cascades (I think there is a view of St. Helens from the roof, but it was cloudy this morning). Turns out my contact there had worked with Johnston.

I visited the center as part of a collaboration-seeking trip to the Pacific Northwest for an master's degree program in environmental education that Bradley University is starting. This trip is business, but I enjoy hearing about other science projects - and seeing the CVO is something a volcano buff ought to do. I think that there is some good collaboration that can be done. Additonally, across the street from the CVO is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife center, so I strolled into there, made a contact, and got information. After that I drove up toward Seattle. I made a side trip (a pilgrimage?) to the Johnston Ridge Observatory (now that is a visitors center). I was seeking stuff for the environmental science courses (especially with respect to erosion), but of course it was fun for me, too. Now I am in Seattle staying with Dace, Susan and Arlan. I have more meetings in Seattle tomorrow. I have lots of pictures, but the day was challenging for this introvert so I will post an old picture of Mt. St. Helens from 9 years ago.

Travel to Washington

A business trip is taking me to the great state of Washington. I arrived too late to get a good picture of Mt. Hood, but it was pretty at the glances I caught. Here is picture of the Chicago skyline from O'Hare.

Back from Austin, MN

The pix I have attached above include:
- Dinner with the 6 members of the Brogan family
- A crop duster heading toward us. They certainly look manuverable. I call this picture the last thing an agricultural pest sees.
- Posing with Karen and Kris at the Spam Museum in Austin.
- Me showing dramatic form while playing frisbee golf.

We got back from a nice trip to Austin, MN, this afternoon. Peoria got smacked with bad weather AGAIN while we were out. The thunderstorm that hit this morning knocked out power throughout the area. Summer classes were cancelled on campus today because of the outages. The only rain we experienced on our trip was a little drizzle and thunder yesterday morning.

We have come up with terminology to describe the rather subdued agricultural topography of the Midwest, based on the more dramatic topography of the Southwest:

-"cornyon" - combination of "corn" and "canyon", comprised of walls of cornstalks on either side of a narrow stetch of land like a road

-"bornch" - combination of "corn", "beans", "bench", and "beach", describing a field of beans lapping up against a wall of corn

-"treesa" - combination of "trees" and "mesa", a group of trees standing up out of the surrounding fields of corn and beans

OK, the terms were little corny...

Trivia: For curiosity's sake we wrote down the numbers of different car colors going in the opposite direction for the 20 minute we went along I-280 around the Quad Cities on Saturday morning. The colors were sometimes had to classify, but this is roughly what we got:

brown/tan - 31

red - 49

orange - 1

yellow - 1

green - 16

blue - 38

purple - 0

black - 32

gray - 62

white - 49

Austin, MN

I have no picture posting capability, but we made it Austin, MN, today. We are visiting the Brogans, old college friends. We also visited the I80 truck stop and the Spam Museum.

New Third Day stuff

I hear that the band Third Day has released a new album "Revelation". I'm looking forward to hearing it. They were on the Tonight Show on Tuesday night. Here is the clip on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PZjvMG7pLE&watch_response

The pic is from a great Third Day concert that Karen, Kris, and I attended last December. The lyrics on the screen are from the song "God of Wonders" which they originally released with Caedemon's call. A video for that song is on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CBNE25rtnE