Idol Opinions

I think American Idol is going to come down to a contest between Jordin, Melinda, and Phil, and Jordin is the current front-runner.

Happy Birthday

To my grandmother, Etta. She was born 115 years ago today. She was famous in our family for liking an odd yellow-tinted green color known as "Grandmother Green." She had clothing and eventually a house in roughly that color. She was a devout Christian Scientist, and died at age 93 despite never have gone to see a doctor.

Taxes

Oh, how I love to do my taxes. Not.

I mailed off my tax forms today with a small check. But TurboTax still says I have errors. I think I can fix the errors later and file an amendment if it changes the bottom line, right?

News

Congratulations to Luke and Jeanette on your engagement.
Best wishes!

Update on "She's back": the first night she was so wound up she did not go to bed until around 11 PM and got up around 6 AM. After going to a live theater performance yesterday afternoon, she finally crashed, slept from around 6 PM to around 7 AM this morning. Today she is acting almost normal! :)

Today's News

She's back! From England, that is.

Sounds about right

"It used to be said that politics ends at the water's edge--that is, that both parties stood in solidarity against foreign foes. Many of today's Democrats have precisely inverted the meaning of that adage. They stand against Republicans, even if that means standing in solidarity with America's enemies."

Source: http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/ April 11, 2007

Tiger Mountain

We took Tiger (a dog) up Tiger Mountain yesterday. Tiger Mountain is a hiking trail near Seattle commonly used for fitness training. It climbs 2,000 feet in 3 miles. We climbed it in 2 hours (slow, judging by how many others passed up by) and descended in 1 hours, almost exactly.

The trailside foliage is mostly salal and swordfern, which are shaded by hemlocks, alders, and douglas fir. A common tableau was a huckleberry bush growing out of an old moss-covered cedar stump, as illustrated by Tiger's pointing in this photo.

The most common flowers were Trillium ovatum, salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis), and Evergreen violet (Viola sempervirens).

My 86-year-old dad did the hike with us. Yup, born in 1920. "When 900 years you reach, look as good, you will not." (Yoda) Maybe it is the carrots.

Our Bleak Future

I had a lively discussion with an engineering college classmate over dinner last night. He was born in Turkey, first came to the U.S. 40 years ago, I met him in 1970, married for over 40 years, conservative, Muslim, American citizen, loves to discuss politics and culture, generally votes Republican but Bush has soured him on Republicans at the national level.

He also would like to see much better control of our borders, to keep out criminals, and says Phoenix is over-run by Mexican crooks and gangs. He is generally negative on the future of American culture (due to lack of parental involvement in raising kids) and the trend is for more crime, more victims, and higher cost to the good people (as victims themselves, and paying for the judicial system, and paying for prisons).

He is also very concerned that the U.S.-Iraq situation is a battle that can never end or at least not well. Withdrawal now would result in huge loss of life, but keeping U.S. troops on the ground will continue to antagonize the whole mid-East situation. I am more hopeful that the Iraqis will learn how to run and police a democracy than he is. And he sees the way the U.S. is handling the Palestinian situation as a burr under the saddle of Muslims around the world and the primary cause of terrorist actions against the U.S.

What do you think is the primary cause of terrorism against the U.S.?

Me, too

See
http://naraka.blogspot.com/2007/04/attack-of-giant-sysrinchium.html

And
http://naraka.blogspot.com/2007/04/sunday-walk.html

Soto posted photos he took with my camera on our Sunday walk. I can only add three pretty flower photos.

A cluster of Sisyrinchium
Fritillaria (Yellow bells)
Hesperochiron (it kind of looks like a strawberry but it is in a different plant family)