Computer Problems

Eric here. I tried to turn on my old laptop the other day to see if there was anything on it that I might still use and it wouldn't even boot up. Turns out the hard drive somehow got erased... so I shot it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

No these are not people in line for a soup kitchen at 4 am on a snowy morning.

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. I did my first turkey! Besides grossly underestimating the cooking time we finished eating at 8, haha. I think my highlight of the evening however was the Pumpkin Chiffon Pie. It doesn't need to be baked, just forgotten about in your fridge until that lovely moment when you remember that is there. It seemed to be a hit. Believe it or not my recipes all came from Oprah's holiday cooking class on Wednesday... haha. You can get the recipes through this link or I'm including the pie one below. We hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving with family and friends. We look forward to seeing most of you in a few short weeks!

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Ingredients:Serves 8

1 envelope unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 cup milk
2 large eggs , separated, yolks beaten
1 cup canned pumpkin
4 1/2 cups heavy cream , whipped
1 (9-inch) graham cracker crust
Shaved dark chocolate
Combine gelatin, 1/2 cup of sugar, salt, cinnamon, allspice, ginger and nutmeg in a saucepan. Stir in milk, egg yolks and pumpkin. Cook over medium heat until thick. Chill saucepan in refrigerator until partially set—about 1 hour.

In a bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/4 cup of sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form. Fold in 1/2 cup of whipped cream. Fold egg white mixture into filling. Pour filling into pie crust and chill for 1 hour.

Just before serving, top with remaining whipped cream and sprinkle some shaved dark chocolate on top.

Why I love my job...

This was the backseat of my car on Halloween.  Train conductor, the Hulk and Zoro.  

Season Opening

Our neighbors hauled a truckload of snow down from the mountain and had a snow boarding party in our front yard. 

This was also the night we went to Muse for Battle of the Bands to see our friend Jake play the drums.  He plays for A Band Called Riley if you want to look them up.  Don't forget the Big Gulp! :)  The last band was late late late getting the stage set up and I will tell you why...

Band name:  Hot Parents 

Genre: Dance, Techno

Set up:  PVC pipe box contsruction with stretched sheet and flood light= shadow dance box!

Favorite lyrics:  "No! NO! / Don't touch me there! / That is /my no-no square!"

This band was fun mostly because they didn't take themselves too seriously. For example, the skinny Asian guy on the keyboard and guitar was wearing a black spandex body suit with a painted white face with two small black circles on his cheeks.  He had glasses and shaglike hair to go with his black cowboy boots and would randomly go dance behind the PVC-pipe-sheet-dance-screen.  Members of the audience were invited to come and dance behind the screen that was behind the band while they played also.  Lots of people did.  Random and fun.  

Also the question of the weekend:  To cut or not to cut?

Season Opening

Our neighbors hauled a truckload of snow down from the mountain and had a snow boarding party in our front yard. 

This was also the night we went to Muse for Battle of the Bands to see our friend Jake play the drums.  He plays for A Band Called Riley if you want to look them up.  Don't forget the Big Gulp! :)  The last band was late late late getting the stage set up and I will tell you why...

Band name:  Hot Parents 

Genre: Dance, Techno

Set up:  PVC pipe box contsruction with stretched sheet and flood light= shadow dance box!

Favorite lyrics:  "No! NO! / Don't touch me there! / That is /my no-no square!"

This band was fun mostly because they didn't take themselves too seriously. For example, the skinny Asian guy on the keyboard and guitar was wearing a black spandex body suit with a painted white face with two small black circles on his cheeks.  He had glasses and shaglike hair to go with his black cowboy boots and would randomly go dance behind the PVC-pipe-sheet-dance-screen.  Members of the audience were invited to come and dance behind the screen that was behind the band while they played also.  Lots of people did.  Random and fun.  

Also the question of the weekend:  To cut or not to cut?

Pilot Valley

In October Eric, a visiting Hydrogeologist from the Czech Republic named Brutus, and I all packed up a van and ATV's to go the flattest place on earth:  

Pilot Valley, NV.  Located here:  

View Larger Map

The video is of us four wheeling across the most narrow part of those salt flats on the map.  We had to locate a few wells on the west side of the valley and collect some electromagnetic conductivity data with the EM equipment BYU had rented which we strapped on the the ATV's with bungee cords.  While going across we encountered what looked like the remains of a poor cow, from a nearby ranch, that had got caught on a hot day in the middle of the desert valley.  Even though there was a layer of mud under the salt crust it's one of the driest places in summer.  Eric's survey area seem to be plagued by dead things haha.  We set up a similar study by Utah Lake a few days before this trip located here (dead center):

View Larger Map

We went to check on the wells we had augerred the day before and in the middle of Eric's research site an old geriatric racoon decided to call it quits during the night apparently.  It made data collection not the most pleasant experience.  Especially when Eric, who is a TA for the 3D Seismic Visualization class, took everyone to the lake for some hands one instruction.  By that time the stench of this rotting animal was awful.  So awful that the professor told the class he would give extra credit to who ever removed the carcass.         These kids better get an A.                              

Good times being a geologist for a week.  SCIENCE! (whew)