We will be out of town for a bit so Audrey can attend a planetary gettogether at JPL and we all do some needed recreating. The beach comes to mind as does a rendezvous with Susan and Doc M. One thing we plan on doing one the way back to Las Vegas is driving parts of the ‘Mother Road,’ Route 66. So, kicks on the return trip.
Only Mad Dogs and Archaeologists vacation in the Mojave in July. 
I haven’t been through Nipton, Cima or Amboy for a while. High time to take Ian there. A group of us used to go that route when the ESRI Conference was still in Palm Springs.
Ghu! That was a dozen years ago… mutter, mutter
It may well be that I will be able to update from the hotel, but I don’t want to count on it. We’ve been disappointed before.
We should be back on the 2nd or 3rd of July.
[trying to do the categories for this post really illustrates to me that a major reorg is long over due]
Naysayers will still say nay, but hopefully they will be increasingly viewed as ideologues. (yeah, right)
Study says Earth’s temp at 400-year high [AP/Yahoo!]
The Earth is the hottest it has been in at least 400 years, probably even longer. The National Academy of Sciences, reaching that conclusion in a broad review of scientific work requested by Congress, reported Thursday that the “recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia.”
A panel of top climate scientists told lawmakers that the Earth is heating up and that “human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming.” Their 155-page report said average global surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rose about 1 degree during the 20th century.
This is shown in boreholes, retreating glaciers and other evidence found in nature, said Gerald North, a geosciences professor at Texas A&M University who chaired the academy’s panel.
The report was requested in November by the chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y. [!], to address naysayers who question whether global warming is a major threat. (…)
Boehlert said Thursday the report shows the value of having scientists advise Congress.
“There is nothing in this report that should raise any doubts about the broad scientific consensus on global climate change,” he said. (more) [emphasis added --ed.]
Today is Audrey and my ninth wedding anniversary! Yea us!
Happy Anniversary sweetie! I would do it all again! 
Ah ha! That’s what that big ‘thud’ was this morning!
In 2006, summer begins June 21, 8:26 A.M. EDT (12:26 UT)
Or maybe it was the cat…
(thanks to Susan for the link)
Today is also Father’s Day in the USA and Canada. I have been admonished to not look in certain places and Ian has been shushed a couple of times when he has started to tell me something.
Audrey: “Ian, is that something we weren’t going to tell to Daddy about?”
Ian: “… Yes”
Audrey: “Is that our secret?”
Ian (small voice): “… yes … (/voice) Happy Birthday Daddy!”
Close enough!
[Update:] Ian (with some help) made me a wonderful earthy glazed slip ceramic bowl which will be used to hold peanuts. How delightful! Audrey gave me a very obnoxious card about how our love is even stronger than my … (ok, it rhymes with ‘hearts’) and a DVD of Demme’s Neil Young movie, Comes a Time. Coolness! I hope all you other Dads had as fine a day as I did.
In the United States, the driving force behind the establishment of the celebration of Father’s Day was Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd, born in Creston, Washington. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, as a single parent raised his six children in Spokane, Washington. She was inspired by Anna Jarvis’s efforts to establish Mother’s Day. Although she initially suggested June 5, the anniversary of her father’s death, she did not provide the organizers with enough time to make arrangements, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June. The first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane.
Unofficial support from such figures as William Jennings Bryan was immediate and widespread. President Woodrow Wilson was personally feted by his family in 1916. President Calvin Coolidge recommended it as a national holiday in 1924. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson made Father’s Day a holiday to be celebrated on the third Sunday of June. The holiday was not officially recognized until 1972, during the presidency of Richard Nixon. [Father’s Day From Wikipedia
Today is Autistic Pride Day. Aspies for Freedom sent this out earlier:
We would like to wish all our members a happy autistic pride day. If you are not taking part in an event please feel free to come to the AFF chatroom and join our online gathering.
http://www.aspiesforfreedom.org/apd.swf
