D.U.S.E.L.

There's some strange stuff going on in the upper midwest. When I first moved here to Sioux City they kept referring to "The Gorilla Project" and showing pictures of a concrete gorilla in a field near Elk Point, SD, which is just 25 miles from Sioux City. It turns out that a company called Hyperion has been optioning thousands of acres to build a 10 BILLION dollar "green" oil refinery. It would be the first oil refinery constructed in the US in 30 years, producing upwards of 400,000 barrels PER DAY.

Natural questions are: 1. What is exactly 'green' about the oil refinery? (Probably the color of the building only.)
2. What the hell do gorillas have to do with it? (Probably more than we think.)

OK, stick with me here. Here is the next interesting part, DUSEL. What is DUSEL?...
"The Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab (DUSEL) at Homestake will address particle and nuclear physics, geology, hydrology, geo-engineering, biology, and biochemistry. Homestake is the deepest mine in North America with rooms at 8000 ft., well-suited for experiments that require extremely low cosmogenic backgrounds: in particular, the search for neutrino-less double beta decay and relic dark matter." They are building the DUSEL as we speak.

Ok, so they are going to study "dark matter" in a big hole in South Dakota, and build a giant new oil refinery nearby. Hmmm. I think likely this sits for a good conspiracy theory. I still have to tie gorillas, a huge oil refinery and a dark matter laboratory together. I'll let you know when I do.

In the meantime good news: I bought a PCI firewire card for my computer. (Moms and Grandmas, this means I can finally transfer home videos of Olivia to the 'ol blog.) Next Installment of the Peltgrande Blogger: Why it is helpful to refer to your significant other as ridiculous creatures from the AD&D Monster Manual when frustrated. I particularly like 'Duckbunny'.

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That just isn't right.

If you can see it from my saved screen shot: NEGATIVE 22 degrees below zero at 7:45 am. ACTUAL temp, mind you, not the wind chill. Ridiculous. The Wind Chill is -36. Brrrrrrrr.

01.18.2008

Olivia has been working on the head strength thing. Initially, babies heads are as I describe them, like golf balls attached to a string. She now is lifting her head up. Baby steps, and might not seem like much, but I amazed at what I now am amazed with when it comes to the small things with her.

January, Boards, Subpoenas and Ninja Babies

Below I present to you Ninja Baby Olivia.

She's practicing her ability to camouflage in with her surroundings. She's got a way to go. Lots of stuff going on in the Brownell family in January. I got my board results, they were good. Now I just have the oral boards left and I will officially be an board certified ER doc. Yeah!

While I am speaking of firsts, I also got my first subpoena. Yeah! It is kind of interesting, and a little intimidating, I guess. I am just a witness for the trial. Docs get subpoenas not infrequently I guess. This one is a public trial, with a jury, and I have to go give my medical findings. For example, I may be asked from my findings, what can I deduce? To which my answer will likely be, "In fact my deduction, good sir, leads me to...Colonel Mustard! Yes, it was Colonel Mustard, with the candlestick in the library!" Ok, maybe not that crazy, but I have watched too much Law and Order and I picture the defense attorney getting crazy with the cheez whiz. Probably won't be that exciting though.

Here mom is! Olivia loves being strapped in to the Baby Bjorn. I highly recommend one for kids if you are having any soon. It frees up your hands so you can actually hold the baby and get stuff done, like wash bottles, make new bottles, wash baby clothes, fold baby clothes... You may or may not be able to play Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii with her strapped in sleeping as well. (I won't officially admit anything in the off chance Nicole reads this.)

Christmas in Wyoming

Before I headed east with Daisy, Olivia and I took a cat nap on the couch. Or at least that's what I found out by seeing this picture on the camera.
Daisy got in a nap as well.
Daisy buried her head fearlessly when she met 911 the cat.

I had a great drive back, the fog had lit up the trees in white and I was able to snap a few great photos. Know this level B road? That's right, The Seven Hills. Countless people have been stuck on this road, and more than a few high schoolers have gotten air in their Ford LTD on at least 2 of the hills.