Watch Out Thomas Alva!

I was up skiing in South Lake Tahoe. We woke up to a snow storm on Saturday. After installing my chains we attempted to make our way to the slopes. Unfortunately, the way to our first choice destination of Sierra was blocked by avalanche control. We ended up going to Kirkwood. This made for some great skiing, nice snow and few people, even if it was cold and windy.

When we returned to our car, the snow and ice had frozen over all the windows. Now, this is a common occurence in my home state of Iowa. So, I had stashed an ice scraper in the trunk of my car for just such an occasion. Somehow, this ice scraper had escaped between last spring and now. What was a man to do?

Well, I'll tell you what I did; I improvented a new type of ice scraper specifically tailored to California. The detailed plans are as follows:



Now, you may say, "Mr. Kessler, that sure looks an awful lot like a frisbee." And I would respond, "Well, any Californian with a frisbee in their trunk must be infringing on my patent. Just ask Michael Crichton, no really, ask him. He's got a lot to say on the subject."

Get your tickets while they last

I just booked my tickets for the greatest show on earth. Nope, not that Barnum and Bailey junk not even the Cirque du Soleil garbage they show on Bravo. I'm talking about Karen Kessler's swan song.

Thats right! On Saturday, May 27 at 2:00 and 6:00 in Cedar Rapids, IA, Karen (my Mom) will be tap dancing to Mr. Sandman as her final foray onto the stage. Get your tickets while they last, cause they are a lot of other proud parents out there. My tickets are already in the bank.

For all the voyeurs out in the audience you can check out my itinerary here.

(Note to terrorists: I heard those particular flights are really lame for terrorizing)

Accident Free Work Days: 2,324 0

A physics lab can be a pretty dangerous place to work, what with chemicals, radiation, and high voltage. Lets not forget all the dangerous equipment, either. Take our Beckman L2 Ultracentrifuge, google it and you'll get the following hits.

So, there are numerous ways to injure oneself in a physics laboratory, but none of those exciting ways is how I broke my nose today. Nope, I did that by running into a wall.

I was in the hall heading toward the corner when a couple of people in my research group were leaving. They called from behind me and asked if I would check on something for them after they left. I turned around said, "ok" and turned back to go around the corner, but apparently I hadn't reached the corner yet. CRACK! my face goes right into the wall and breaks my nose. I went into the bathroom and got some paper towels to stop the bleeding and managed to pop it back into place.

I'm reporting that wall to OSHA!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

There comes a time in every young man's life when he realizes that he is becoming his father. This happened to me earlier today as I attempted to sit down, but instead split my pants at the crotch (insert, then delete tasteless joke here).

Now, its not that my Dad is a habitually crotch ripper (who knows? maybe he is, lets not judge), its what I did next that made me realize what I have become.

My first reaction wasn't, "Oh, dang! This pair of pants is ruined." It was, "Where's that sewing kit Dad gave me for my Birthday?"

So, now I have a pair of pants with a sewn-up crotch. And try as hard as I might to ignore it, there is no getting around the fact that yep, they're sewn-up, just like that pair I make fun of Pa for wearing.

I take this whole incident as a sign that I have let my marathon training lapse over this past week.

Make no mistake...

This wasn't the big one. But, there was a 3.4 earthquake in Orinda this morning. The most important fact about that news story is where it mentions how I finally felt an earthquake.

Now, I'm a Real Californian!

Hope your hump day/rent day/earthquake day was spectacular!