We've got plenty of space and plenty of people coming up this summer but I need to start finding out WHO is coming and WHEN so that we can make plans. It's going to be a fun summer and we look forward to sharing it with as many of you as we can.

Please email me and let me know.

Brandon's email

Yes, this is open to family AND friends, I just need to know the perts.

Thanks

In my master's program we had a group of four of us that were called TWD Total World Domination (Jeremy, Diane, Brandon R. and I). We carried over mission statements, strategy sessions, etc into this bizarre concept. Well today I ran into this website -- simply bizarre.

http://qntm.org/destroy

Well, I got through the first stage -- yes I know that was quick. I'm now enrolled in the non-degree portion of the program which will give me a year to build my application.

Yeah, it will actually take me a year just to apply for my specific PhD during which time I will be building a faculty commitee, researching my problem to meld into my dissertation, etc. This should all be very interesting.

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We started to repanel the entry way with drywall. A few weeks ago I demoed that horrible slatted window between the entry and living room and dry walled it in. Now I am in the process of doing the other side. Looks good so far.

Yup, I'm taking the plunge. I'm a little bit hesitant, but today I have a phone interview for the Interdisciplinary Program at the University of Montana. I will likely continue on in my current course of study, but we'll see what happens.

Heh, Dr, me? That's funny.


***UPDATE: The interview went well and the Dean is a great guy. I applied as a non-degree graduate student to begin the formal application process -- which will take about a year to do properly. I will also get one class out of the way that will hopefully apply to my program, but I'm not sure yet. It's pretty unique so we'll see.

Math God Test

Man I love this. I've been wrapping my brain around this for a half hour now and I've only gotten 9 out of 21 answers so far. The two people that definitely need to try this are my sister Leslie and Mark Monsees.

BTW, even though they give you the option of cheating, there just isn't any fun in that. That would only take 5 minutes.

It dawned on me about 2 weeks after arriving in Montana that I would have nothing to talk about with 95% of the males here unless I began hunting. It's intriguing, but a rifle doesn't seem all that sporting, so long ago I opted for a bow.

This week I started out by going to a bowyer that I know named Dan Toelke. The guy is amazing. People come from all over the country to have this guy make custom bows for them. Basically you go in and he measures your pull and then you start on your shooting form. I think I'll be going over there a total of 6-8 times and each time he raises the poundage on the bow until its just right.

After that's done he custom makes the bow for you from all these exotic woods that come from all over the world.

Article about his bow making

It's nice, because I've heard from a couple of different sources that he's been telling people that I'm a natural. Pretty cool since he respects that sort of thing and I think that will make him want to do 'that much better' on my bow. Honestly though, I wouldn't mind one of this guy's knock offs. He is such a perfectionist and his bows are so beautiful that I can't even imagine him making something less than spectacular.

Now to get over the next hurdle: Bringing myself to kill Bambi

At least it seems as though it is getting warmer. It's supposed to be in the 40's this week, so things are looking up. Personally though, I prefer 20 degrees with no snow or rain over 50 degrees with rain. That said, I'm looking forward to visiting Vegas in May hopefully it gets into the 90s.

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Bella's birthday was this weekend (pictures are below). She had fun and got 'Yots and Yots' of presents. Perfect birthday for a 3 year old. Saturday night some of the teachers from Judy's Mom's school came over, had dinner and watched our Saturday night movie with us.

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Kicking and Screaming was this week's family movie. On top of that I also watched the Ref. funny stuff.

I also got a DVD from another former student of mine on Saturday. I haven't watched it yet, because it will no doubt be a pretty heavy documentary. You can read a bit about it here:

DEAR FRANCIS

I can't take the slightest bit of credit for his work, but it is nice to see one of your former students take the ball and run with it in ways that you never did. I seriously appreciate his guts and his passion.

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Arrgh, the cold combined with stress eating has pushed my weight up beyond what it has ever been before. I need to take drastic measures.
231.4 -- the diet starts today.

Bella enjoying her birthday cake


Anya where we can usually find her -- underneath a book


This guy was eating the bushes under our living room window, so I took his picture.

When I got to work this morning it was 20 degrees below zero outside. I still don't understand the phenomenon of cold weather because I can't understand how it can be so beautiful, yet so cold. YES, I know it has to do with the inversion layer and if there is cloud cover it warms up so that...y'know

Well, at least I cancelled my trip to Glacier this weekend. I just didn't think I could hang out with a bunch of guys in below freezing temperatures. I would prefer to sit in my hot tub and watch movies all weekend.

Silly me.

...but colder than ice is entirely another.

Let's face it, it really is the humidity that makes the difference. There really isn't that big of a difference between 10 and 50 degrees if there's no precipitation, but if you add in snow and ice on top of below zero temperatures, well then you have the conditions for where I will be this weekend.

The name, Glacier National Park, feels horribly apropos at the moment. That is where I will be going this weekend for the men's retreat at church. It should be around -10 and snowing on Friday night when we arrive.

My testicles should descend sometime the following thursday.