We are annoying.

That's right, Brandon and I are annoying. I wouldn't want to be our friend. Last night when we were watching the History channel, the narrator was talking about boulders deposited in Central Park during the ice age. He said that they had remained there for "eons." I looked at Brandon and said, "How long is an eon? I hear the term all the time but I doubt that anyone knows what it means." Apparently Brandon was wondering the same thing, so he looked it up. We found out that an eon covers a span of at least 500 million years (there have only been 4 eons in the history of the earth). Since the last ice age ended about 13,000 years ago, the narrator was way off. So we will probably never again let someone use the word "eon" without correcting them, because 95% of the time, it's not used correctly.

I wouldn't want to be our teacher, either. Well, we don't really give our teacher a hard time, we just make fun of her behind her back. She had us read an article about a geologist who dated the Sphinx to about 5,000 BC. Archaeologists, an opinionated bunch, think that it was built no earlier than 2,500 BC because they haven't found evidence for an earlier culture capable of building it. So our archaeology teacher ripped this article apart, saying that he failed to take the archaeological record into account and even telling us that the article was published in a science fiction magazine. But what she failed to take into account was the fact that all of his observations of erosion were pretty convincing, and since he's a geologist, basing his case on the archaeological record would have been pretty dumb. She also didn't tell us that he published the same case in a peer-reviewed science magazine. Instead of saying, "We haven't found enough arcaeological evidence for this, so he must be wrong," she should have said, "Erosion patterns indicate that it was built earlier, so the archaeological record must be incomplete. " As for me, I'll agree with the field that has the lesser amount of BS inherent, and that's geology.

Great classes

I really like my classes this semester. I'm only taking one Spanish class, and it's the Spanish-American Novel. What we do is read books, come to class, and talk about them. It's like book club in Spanish.

In my Mesoamerican Archaeology class, we're learning about the Olmecs. They were pretty weird. They liked carving statues of ugly human-jaguar babies.

My Astronomy class is just about the easiest class I've taken in college. Our final project is "our interpretation of astronomy." My teacher says he's had drawings, songs, and interpretive dances about the universe, and they all got A's. I'm going to paint some nebulas. The one above is Lagoon Nebula--it's my favorite one. I'm excited to do it, I just need to decide on a medium. Brandon's helping me with that.

Our marriage

For Sunday school Brandon and I have been going to the newlyweds class. Yesterday we were supposed to write down things that each of us brought to the relationship. I looked at Brandon's paper and he had written, "I bring the frontal lobes to the relationship. Shady brings the amygdala." I think he's been listening to Mom too much.

And for those who are wondering, Brandon does call me Shady-- quite possibly more often than he calls me Lindsey.

Dear Utah,

I couldn't be more happy with you this year. I was sorely disappointed last year when you selfishly withheld the entire fall season and went directly from summer into winter. You have done much better this year. The leaves are already beautiful. I'm looking forward to more cool weather.
Love, Shady

weird story

I have a weird story to tell. On Tuesday when I came into work, there was a Brick Oven bag on top of the pastry holder. A co-worker told me that it was for me; a wedding present. Someone had dropped it off at the office. I opened the bag and found a sushi kit, a book, and a card from Fern and Reed Peterson. It was a great gift. What I can't understand, though, is how Fern and Reed Peterson got the present to my work. Were they visiting? Did they have someone else drop it off? Had they recently been to Brick Oven? How did they know that I work there? How did they find the office? It confused me for the rest of the day.

I guess it's one of those stories that I'll never have an explanation for. Kind of like when I found a crab in my bathroom. But that's a story for another day.

wedding album, a few pages

Correction

Okay, fine. I only took one of those pictures, and only a couple more of them were actually my idea (although Brandon had the same idea so he would have taken them anyways). Most of my pictures only made it to the semi-finals. As for the editing, Brandon did it and asked for my advice once in awhile. So I won't try to steal any more of Brandon's thunder. I am officially the less artistic one. But I still take credit for the idea for the project.

More, for Bethy.

Bethany,
These pictures are all on snapfish. You can get them in 11x14, 12x18, 16x20, and 20x30. Just let me know and I will crop them to the right dimensions. If not, then Snapfish crops them for you, and it sometimes messes up the picture.

more

The finalists (a few)

Brandon and I have two common interests: photography and National parks. Thanks to the camera that Mom gave us, we have been able to combine those two this summer. With a little photo editing, Brandon and I are starting a collection of black-and-white National Parks photos. Because of our budget and space constraints, we can only hang 12- 8x10 pictures on our wall. Here are some of the finalists. (Hint: click on the pics. They look much cooler in full size.)

Above: Craters of the Moon lava tube

Top left: Aspen trunks at Grand Teton

Bottom left: Wyoming sky and the Tetons

What's even more interesting is Brandon's idea for hanging them. Since we only get 2 nail holes per wall, Brandon came up with the idea of hanging a false wall (peice of plywood painted whatever color we want) and hanging the pictures on it. This will be cool.

Fernash, I'm planning on doing your blog on Monday.