Audrey is giving Ian his last feeding of the day, last for a bit anyway. I need to hit the rack. Pax.
I just watched a rebroadcast of The Living Edens: Canyonlands, America’s Wild West on PBS. Wonderful photography.
This year’s Trick or Treater numbers were down about 60% here. All around there was not much activity. Somebody needs to take this candy outta here! Costumes didn’t seem very original tonight, a lot of Princesses and ‘Barbie Squad’ for girls, (the latter was new to me), while the boys were various ghouls and undead things. I thought the little ones were far cuter than last year, it must be that babyitis that is going around. Ian was unimpressed with the whole affair. Go figure…
November’s Leonid meteor shower could be impressive. 2K metors/hr! via wired
The United States can look forward to the most spectacular meteor show since 1966 — and it might be another 98 years before anything so sensational will be seen again. The Nov. 18 Leonid meteor shower will be “very impressive, rare and something that you’ll want to see,” said Peter Jenniskens, a research scientist specializing in the study of meteors at the NASA/Ames Research Center at California’s Moffett Field. “The August Perseids meteor shower, which normally gets the most annual astronomer attention, records a rate of about 80 meteors an hour, but this November’s Leonids will record a rate over 2000,” Jenniskens said.
No rain in the Las Vegas Valley, however, the air is crisp and clean˜very clean˜and smells delightful. It is a joy to be outside.
The full moon tonight is also a ‘blue moon’. That is when two full moons occur within a calendar month. It is also the last full moon on Halloween until the year 2020. Big juju could be afoot tonight… full moon stuff heard on NPR over lunch, Tonight’s big juju is just speculative.
Happy Samhain/Halloween!
Several California folks report rain or sprinkles. I suspect that Susan may be the only one far enough south to be a harbinger of what might come to pass in the northern Mojave. I sure hope some rain might make it across all that desert and mountains between here and there. We could sure use it.
BBC Sci/Tech: 1908 Tunguska blast ’solved’. The hypothesis of what happened is an untestable one, the very best kind. 
Actually, it sounds plausable, I suspect they may be on to the solution. via garret
[A] team of Italian researchers believe they may have the definitive answer. After combining never-before translated eyewitness accounts with seismic data and a new survey of the impact zone, the scientists say the evidence points strongly to the object being a low-density asteroid.
garret has their vacation report up at dangerousmeta!. It sounds like a great time was had by all. vacations are always too short
Hello all…
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A little while ago I saw a McDonald’s ad on TV for some sort of ‘Tastes of Germany’ promo. They were highlighting McDonald’s Bratwurst. McWurst, or maybe McBrat. Ugh. Shudder. Fast food is bad enough, but that really sounds disgusting. Maybe its just me.
This was my first day back at work after Ian’s birth. I couldn’t stand being away from him and Audrey, so I drove home at lunch just so I could see our little baby and see Audrey’s radient smile. I’m awash in baby love.
Yea! garret and sandra made it home OK. I will enjoy seeing the pictures of their trip.
Glad to hear that you’re OK Robert. seat belts gooood!
Postings to follow… later: sorry, it took longer that I expected to get back here.
I hope you have a great day.
Chop Wood, Change Diapers
Everything is part of practice, if you can let your your life be your practice. I’m not saying I’m there, only that I can see it from here. It is extremely hard for me to look at Ian and not leave the moment, Though the paradox is that I am never more in the moment than when I hold him, look at Audrey holding him, of watching him sleep. Beginnings are laden with possibilities, perhaps never more so than when you look at your week-old child. Still, what remains is what needs to be done. That serves as a grounding effect. Que sera, sera anyone?
repeat pointer: Mothering as Meditation Practice by Anne Cushman at Tricycle Magazine. via wood s lot
Did you remember to ‘fall back’ since we are back on Standard Time? I didn’t, but that didn’t seem to matter much. We’re on Pacific Baby Time.
Ian: I was trying to sleep on Saturday morning after having a great time all night, but Dad would not leave me alone. I put a stop to that nonsense by grabbing the offending digit with my mighty hand and would not let go.
Dad: Actually, I’m working on the whole day=awake, night=sleep routine. Plus, the poor guy is milk drunk. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible than a baby in the depths of a milk binge. He is six days old in this picture (27 Oct 2001).
Although it remains to be seen where (if?) Ian will choose to go to college, Mom is influence peddling with a onesie from her alma mater. Ian is four days old in this picture (25 Oct 2001).
Ian gets Scobleized. Thanks for the mention Robert!
Two Jungian pointers, both by Maxson J. McDowell:
via wood s lot
Jungian Analysis and Biology and
The three gorillas: an archetype orders a dynamic system
Family and friends: Saturday with Ian.
We had the good fortune to have a visit from garret and sandra early this afternoon. They are even nicer in person. They are on their way back to Santa Fe via the Grand Canyon. Enjoy the Canyon and have a safe trip back!
Happy Birthday to Tom Negrino of Backup Brain!
[UniSci] Did Humans Cause Extinctions? Archaeologist Says No. This is the nugget of Grayson’s classic rebuttal of Martin’s Pleistocene megafauna overkill hypothesis. Grayson was one of Martin’s graduate students, btw, and Martin showed classic scientific ecumenicalism by giving him a forum and not crushing him as some advisors might have. I’m far more curious about the need for him to address “the idea of introducing modern elephants, camels and other large herbivores into the southwest United States”. Grayson rightly poo-poos that notion as it just sounds ridiculous from an ecological pov. IMHO of course. Camels were already tried in the nineteenth century. I don’t think they were convicted though. </groan>
Poo-poo. Yes, I have learned much about the ancient art of diaper divination in a short time. I know I am not the first to read the runes, I merely have joined the ancient order as an acolyte…
Dogs tolerate change well. All you need do is pat them on their head and tell them things are all right. Cats are cut from a different cloth. They do not embrace change nor welcome it. If the cheese gets moved, it better be real cheese and not some management crap metaphor, or they don’t want to hear about it. That’s why you will find coyotes in large urban areas like Los Angeles, but you have to look far from the haunts of humans to find a wild cat. Which I guess serves as a preface to the observation that Keats!, the Welsh Pembroke Corgi, has taken the job of official protector of the baby, while Dodger is spending a lot of time outside and keeps giving us ‘What the hell were you thinking?’ looks. I hope he comes to accommodate the changes around here, I’m pretty crazy about that cat.
I’m trying to get some blog traction. Blog-wise things are so capably handled elsewhere. I’d hate to have to resort to showcasing my personality quirks here.
I am so toasted on the main-stream media ‘news’. I continue to operate on the assumption that if I need to know something, someone will tell me. It has been working so far…
And here I was hoping for something like Thorvald Helmsplitter…
Your Viking Name is… Óli Bearmangler
Your Viking Personality: You’re a doughty, stalwart Viking. You have a thirst for battle, and tend to strike first and think later. You’re not a “berserker”, but you’re among the toughest sane Vikings around.
You can handle long sea voyages easily, despite the lack of amenities. You possess some skills which other Vikings respect.
You don’t have a lot of tact, so it’s lucky Vikings never cared much for diplomacy. Other people tend to think of you as manipulative and conniving.
Brent: Papa says: I will bite Windows XP! On the butt! lol! ya gotta love a cat like that…
I posted a new picture of a very contented, sleeping Ian. Very different from his first picture. 
Here is Ian sleeping at 12:45 pm on 10/25/2001. He is considerably calmer here than the last time he visited blivet. I know this is true for all parents, but he just takes my breath away˜I think he is so beautiful. It is all I can do to put him down and leave him alone to sleep.
Thanks to Mike Donellan of blackholebrain for the link to Boudreaux’s Butt Paste, the best baby butt balm there is. I think we might need some baby butt spackle as well…
Audrey and Ian are home now. I hope your life makes you as happy as we are.