october 31

you know what that means... it's reformation day! it's the 490th anniversary of the day that german monk martin luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the wittenburg church. feel free to celebrate however you choose, but i'm going to hand out candy to children. maybe i'll wear my martin luther costume as well.

earthquake!

our first earthquake just rumbled through the house. our midwestern instincts were jammed, and we ran around in useless confused circles. meanwhile, the windows were banging, the floor shook, and the walls were creaking. it came out of alum rock north east of san jose, and measured 5.6. it was pretty exciting.

here's a little map to demonstrate the location, timing, and severity of the quake. it's location would explain why chris's pictures fell off the walls in mountain view but our wine glasses remained firmly planted on the desk in santa cruz.

marine excitement, enya, and keytar!

here is a short film providing some of the highlights of our trip to the monterey bay aquarium.



this and other videos we have produced, as well as additional video selections, can all be accessed off the videos page of our website

great scott(s)

marta's parents came to santa cruz last weekend. it rocked!
this is what they look like (they're on the left):


we tasted wine in the santa cruz mountains at byington vineyard.


we saw the redwoods of henry cowell state park.



we visited with monarch butterflies, starfish, and sea anemones at natural bridges state park.

we toured the monterey bay aquarium.

it likely goes without saying, but we rode in the car a lot.

we're exhausted.

cnn does it again

ksat, out of amarillo, texas, had a news report today entitled pit bulls kill miniature horse donated to cancer-stricken child. a heart wrenching story to be certain.

cnn picked up the story and retitled it, "pit bulls kill cancer boy's miniature horse". is "cancer boy" really the preferred nomenclature? come on cnn, you're better than that. oh wait, no you aren't.

badger-o-lantern

or is it a jack-o-badger?

either way, it's one of three pumpkins we carved for halloween. if you're wondering, the other two are faces. one is a smiling jack-o-latern, and the other is a pirate. beth thinks the pirate looks more like the monopoly guy with an eye patch instead of his usual monocle. she's right.


a wisc-o-lantern. that's what it is.

how will the celebrities cope?

300,000 people have had to evacuate their homes in what will likely be the worst san diego wildfires in recorded history.

what is cnn worried about? celebrities.
seriously. just read the title of the article linked above.

this makes me want to puke.

happy mole day!

mole day
[mohl dā]
-noun

an unofficial holiday celebrated among chemists in north america on october 23, between 6:02 am and 6:02 pm, making the time and date 6:02 10/23, or avogadro's number, which is approximately 6.022×10²³, defining the number of particles (atoms or molecules) in a mole.

maurice oehler, now a retired high school chemistry teacher from prarie due chen, wi founded the national mole day foundation on may 15, 1991.

mole day was first introduced to me by wild bill larson, my high school chemistry teacher.

a bike, or not a bike? that is my question

today on my bike ride home from work, while on the bike path, i got stuck behind someone riding something that looked like this:


this little vehicle traveled much faster than i could across the flat parking lots so i couldn't catch it to pass, but it traveled quite slowly up hills. more annoyingly, it couldn't go anywhere near the speed of a pedal driven bicycle on the long enjoyable downhill from ucsc to mission street in santa cruz. this meant i had to brake the entire way down, which is a very unfortunate use of all that gravity. i realize that it is a very energy conscious means of getting to work, probably using less electricity than a toaster, but my question to you is, is this vehicle pictured above a bicycle, and does it deserve to be on the bike path?

i am quite familiar with electric bicycles. an electric bicycle is a standard bicycle, with pedals, that also has an electric motor (see below) to supplement pedaling during hills or something. this way the rider doesn't get all sweaty on the way to work, a major complaint of commuting by bike. i do believe these earn themselves a place in bike lanes and paths. they are bikes.


as you may have guessed, i don't think that the little yellow vehicle above (adorably named 'the wizard') is a bicycle, and i don't think it should be on bike paths going to fast in the flats and too slow on hills. i've said my peace.

j.c.v.d.

i just read an article on slate.com about jean-claude van damme. he's turning 47, and has a new movie coming out. it has been over a decade since one of his movies has been released in a theater. now they all go straight to video. i guess i'm not sure if this one will make it to the theaters or not, but it does sound like it's going to be terrific. it sounds like like this one is going to break the mold of van damme movies. it is entitled j.c.v.d. in j.c.v.d., and it is a biopic about jean-claude staring none other than "the muscles from brussels" himself. check out this teaser. i think it is going to be the best movie of 2008.

what are we observing this month? october edition

on my ride to work today i saw a billboard proclaiming october to be national cyber security awareness month. i got to thinking, "i wonder how many different groups proclaim a month to be in observance of their cause." a quick search of the internets revealed that the easy answer to my query is "dozens." i decided that it might be a nice service to post on our blog a short list of some of the monthly observances. this is a touch late for october, but we will try to get them posted around the first of the month from now on. without further ado, here is a partial list of observances for october, 2007.

national communicate with your kids month
national cookie month
national "gain the inside advantage" month
international starman month
national chili month
national go on a field trip month
national sarcastic awareness month
positive attitude month
self-promotion month
talk about prescriptions month
wishbones for pets month
celebrate sun dried tomatoes month

please remember, this is only a partial list. if i have omitted any that are important to you, please leave them as a comment to the blog entry. be sure to look around november 1st for a new list.

body world

this afternoon we went to san jose to see the body world exhibit at the tech museum. body world displays human cadavers that have been incredibly preserved using a "high tech" process known as plastination. it was quite interesting. marta made a very interesting discovery when comparing the photo on the brochure with the actual body in the exhibit.


they digitally castrated him in the picture. in the actual display his testicles are hanging quite prominently between his legs, but here there appear to be none. apparently a man with no skin is fine for the cover of the brochure, but a man with testicles is in bad taste.

post secret

i was alerted this morning to the existence of a blog called post secret. maybe everyone already knows about this. it must be fairly popular because it has been made into a book, and they recently posted that they have had their 100 millionth visitor. i think davidandmarta.com is still probably a few months away from that type of mark. anyway, the blog is a project in which people anonymously send homemade postcards revealing a personal secret, and they post them on this blog. people reveal some seriously personal and interesting secrets. i found myself quite captivated.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

yes, there really is a kalamazoo

reed and molly (see photo of the week 10/03/07) continually bring joy to our lives. this past weekend was no exception as we celebrated reed and molly's wedding in kalamzoo, mi. the wedding and reception were wonderful, the food was delicious, the dancing was athletic, and the camaraderie was unsurpassed.



friday night, after the rehearsal dinner, we made a pilgrimage to the bell's brewery in kalamazoo.


if joy can be measured by pints of oberon and two hearted ale, we had a most joyful weekend.

lookin' good at mile 23

congratulations becky and matt (not pictured) on finishing the chicago marathon in the most grueling conditions on record. this is a picture of becky and some of her cheering section after 23 miles in 88 degree heat.

october madness

catch the fever


while visiting marta's sister anna in san rafael this past weekend, we found this casting of a human skull in a free box . quite the find.