Cuter by the minute!

Happy birthday to the cutest California Girl!

"Doctor Atomic" x 3

On Friday as I was driving on my little roadtrip, I listened to John Adams's opera about J. Robert Oppenheimer, Doctor Atomic, on XM Vox. It was musically interesting but difficult. The libretto, which used many actual writings of the Manhattan Project principals, had some neat lines, including this one, which still holds true today: "Anyone could have found Los Alamos just by following the trail of beer cans from Santa Fe."


When I went into the store yesterday morning, I found a note from one of the staffers. A customer from the National Institutes of Health was looking for the libretto for Doctor Atomic, because she was going to see the opera at the Met in October. I couldn't find a libretto online, so I suggested she check at the Met's gift shop.

But wait! There's more. That afternoon my friend Candace, a voice teacher and good friend to the store, came in and said, "I have someone I want you to meet." She introduced me to Sasha Cooke, who will be singing Kitty Oppenheimer in the Met's production of Doctor Atomic this fall! Sasha was browsing in our atomic history section for books that mention Kitty. She had already read American Prometheus but hadn't read 109 East Palace. I gave her our good-singer's discount and asked her to sign my daily planner. Pretty cool, eh?

Housecleaning

In preparation for a visit from his girlfriend, my neighbor cleaned house very thoroughly.

Who are you really?

Wednesday was the all-district meeting for the faculty and staff in the Los Alamos Public Schools. I set up a table outside the Duane Smith Auditorium to pass out informational flyers with valuable cents-off coupons, get addresses for our teachers-only newsletter, and feature the cool books, games, and toys we have at Otowi Station. And to make sure that I was noticed, I wore my Cat in the Hat hat, which has a 14-inch crown. When I wear it, I'm really hard to miss, as the folks behind me at the Santa Fe Opera can attest.


(Not really P-Doobie.)

But some people were confused about which literary character I was portraying.

"Good morning, Dr. Doolittle!"

"Hey! It's the Mad Hatter!"

Playing with the telephoto lens

I got a Quantaray telephoto lens for my Nikon D40, and today Ike and I took a drive to San Jose, New Mexico, which I've passed any number of times on the way to and from Las Vegas, but I never stopped there until today.

View Larger Map

I tried out the lens, and I had some trouble with focus (I'm not sure whether I should wear my reading glasses as I look through the viewfinder), but I think with practice I'll get better.

Lots of houses in northern New Mexico have blue windows, which either keep evil spirits away or indicate the presence of marriageable young women.

Here is the Pecos River.

These are the nests of cliff swallows that the birds built in the underpass under I-25. They look to me like some kind of little animals singing.

If two trains traveling 40 mph leave their respective stations at 10:00 a.m., how many rods are in a rood?

Today's topic is practical math. Things are not going well.

I recently went to the service station in my neighborhood to buy some sodas. For many months they've displayed a sign advertising three Coke products for $3.00. So I went to the counter with three Coke products, and the nice young woman said, "That'll be $4.17." I said, "No, they're three for $3.00." She replied, "No, the price is now four for $5.00. But the price is still the same; you just get more bottles."

A young man in his late teens or early twenties and seemingly of normal intelligence regularly comes into the store for the Magic and Pirates of the Spanish Main gaming cards. The cards are all $4.49 a pack. And he always says, "I have $20.00. How many packs can I buy?" Michele has tried to walk him through the estimating process but to no avail. The next time he asks her, she said, she'll be tempted to answer, "Two."

Today I got the following exciting news from the Netherlands Lottery. "The Lottary gaming board (LOTTO.NL) is pleased to inform you of the result of the online award program.Your E-mail address attached to serial number NL90-4264, Lucky Number:24,2,6,35,45 and online number #1453128, was awarded the sum of 700,000.00 euros. This is from a total cash prize of €3,500,000.00 shared amongst the first Twelve (5) lucky winners in this category."

I was walking several years ago in Bandelier National Monument and came upon two women of a particular regional persuasion (you know the one: Texas). They were discussing cameras and "fim."

"I got this fim in Germany. The strange thing is it has 27 exposures instead of 24."

"Hmmm. Must be metric."

It's okay. I'm wearing gloves.

I don't know what's happening with food workers in Los Alamos, but it ought to be stopped.

This week I met one of our local authors for coffee at the Coffee Booth. I stepped up to the counter and ordered a coffee in a mug, and the young man got a ceramic mug and inspected it for cleanliness, as the staff there always does. He found a speck of something, and instead of giving me a different mug, he reached inside, scraped the speck carefully with his finger, dumped out whatever was in there, and handed me the mug. I asked for a to-go cup

Several months ago I was standing in line at the Subway next door. The staff there wears plastic gloves on their hands when they prepare the sammitches. The other customers and I watched in disbelief as the young "sandwich artist" scratched her head with her gloved hand and then went back to the customer's order. The customer said, "You just scratched your head!" And the young woman replied, "It's okay. I'm wearing gloves." We went to Ruby K's.

I gave Subway a wide berth after than, but went back about a month ago. This time the young man who was making a sandwich scratched his butt and returned to making sandwiches. The customer said, "You scratched your butt!" The young man replied, "It's okay. I'm wearing gloves." We went to Ruby K's again. (I'm also writing a letter to the president of Subway.)

Michele recalls a time she was at an ice cream parlor in New Hope, Pennsylvania. It was a hot day, and the ice cream in the cone that the helper was preparing began to drip a little. So he licked the drippy part and then handed the cone to the customer. Michele said the only sounds in the place were those of crickets chirping, pins dropping, and tumbleweeds rolling across the deserted streets.


It's okay. We'll put on gloves.