Pictures from July 19th, 2005

Pictures from our last day in Glacier National Park. All of the pictures of of the Two Medicine Region. This part of the park is only 4 to 8 miles from where I grew up. On a side note, the Two Medicine Lakes are some of the few lakes in the Park NOT fed by glaciers. If you want to see larger versions of any of the pictures below, just click on as picture!


A picture of the Two Medicine Valley and Lower Two Medicine Lake. There are 3 lakes all together (Lower, Middle, and Upper.) The only way to see Upper Two Medicine Lake is to hike around Middle Two Med (or take the Boat across Middle Two Med, and hike to Upper.) In this picture, the very left peak is called Scenic Point, the very middle peak in the distance is Sinopah, and on the right is Rising Wolf Mountain.


This is a picture of Running Eagle Falls (formerly Trick Falls.) This is how it looks in the summer, but in the spring, water rushes over the top also, hence the old name, Trick Falls.


A close up Running Eagle Falls. It is much easier in this picture to tell where the water also falls in the spring.


A picture of Middle Two Medicine Lake. On the left, you can see Sinopah and on the right you can see the very edge of Rising Wolf.

More from July 18th, 2005

To hike to Grinnell Lake, you must travel next to Swift Current Lake and Lake Josephine. Below, you will find two pictures of Lake Josephine.


Lake Josephine from the boat dock. This is the first glimpse of the lake on the way to Grinnell Lake.


Lake Josephine from about its mid-point. You can't really tell from the picture, but the water is very green due to all the glacial sediments.

The Grinnell Lake Hike - July 18th, 2005

These pictures were taken on the hike to Grinnell Lake. The trail starts at the Many Glacier Lodge is approximately 3.5 miles long. For my wife and I, this was a great day hike. Below are some of the sights we saw.

This is a picture taken of Grinnell Creek facing north. If you find the large snow field on the left, Grinnell Lake (actually Lower Grinnell Lake) is located at the base of the peak that the snow field is on. That snow field is part of Grinnell Glacier.


A great picture of Grinnell Lake. When walking on the trail, this is the first glimpse you get of the lake. The water falls in the background feed the lake, and the falls themselves are fed by Upper Grinnell lake (which is fed by Grinnell Glacier.)
Again, another picture of Grinnell Creek, except this one is facing south. This is my absolute favorite picture I took on the vacation of Glacier National Park.


This is Hidden Falls. It is located on a side trail on the way to Grinnell Lake. The trail, which is only 200 yards or so, climbs about 100 to 150 feet. From the main trail to Grinnell Lake, you can't see the falls.


Another picture of Grinnell Lake, except made even better because my wife is in the picture. You can tell the wind was blowing because the lake has many waves. Any stronger and they would be white caps.

Pictures from July 17, 2005

These pictures were taken on July 17th as we "toured" the Glacier National Park. In actuality, we took Going-to-the-Sun Road through the Park. The road is the only road "through" the park.

Above is a picture of the Logan Pass area. If I'm not mistaken, the peak in the center is Going-to-the-sun.

This is a picture of St. Mary's Lake. I just like it. It was taken on our trip back to my parents house.


Above is a picture of Sun Rift Gorge. It was our first stop of the day. It is easily one of the most accesible sites along Going-to-the-Sun Road. From the parking, it is merely 100 yards or so.


Above is a picture of Avalanche Creek Gorge along the Trail of the Cedars on the West side of the Park. I had never been here before, as far as I know. Although most of the Trail of the Ceders was closed, stopping at Avalanche Creek Gorge was well worth it.

Pictures from July 14, 2005

Below are several pictures from our vacation visiting my folks and Glacier National Park. The pictures below are of the Many Glacier area and Chief Mountain. All were taken on July 14.

Above is a picture of Many Glacier Valley and Swift Current Lake. My wife and I would hike around this lake on July 18th when we hiked to Grinnell Lake. The Many Glacier area is only 15 miles or so from where my parents currently live.

Above is a picture of Chief Mountain. The side facing us is on the Blackfeet Reservation and the side we can't see is in Glacier National Park. Chief Mountain is only 10 miles (or less) from where my parents currently live.

Another picture of Swift Current Lake taken at the Many Glacier Lodge.


Above is a picture of a Hoary Marmot. This guy (or gal) was posing on a bridge on the way to the Chief Mountain Border Crossing. We found out later the two adults in the area (one pictured above) had a litter? of little ones that were accidently run over 2 or 3 days later.

Now for something else

So, summer is almost done, and well, it has been great, but I still haven't come close finishing the books on my reading list, and we have only made a slight dent in the movies. So I now present my ammended list for the remaining 23 days of summer vacation.

For the rest of the summer, I hope to finish at least one more of the following books:

• Sir Apropos of Nothing: Book 3 - Tong Lashing by Peter David. I have already started this book, and just laughed my self silly when Apropos was playing D&D, and the evil wizard Ronnell MacDonnell of the clan MacDonnell. Now Apropos has landed in the mysterious land of Chinpan.
• Wellspring of Chaos by L.E. Modesitt. - I have enjoyed the previous 12 books (or so) set in the land of Recluse (or there abouts). This book should be interesting because we get to learn about another Ordermaster.
• A Life Unfinished by Mark Spragg - Set in Wyoming, about a young girl, and a couple of old cowboys. This book was written by the Brother-in-Law of our Special Education Teacher. I have a Signed copy of the book. This book has already been made into a movie, which will be out in September. There will be an advanced screening in Red Lodge on Aug. 26th, and the author will be present. The movie stars Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, and Jennifer Lopez.

Now, the movies I would like to see before the summer is done.

• War of the Worlds - Just one of the movies you have to see on the big screen.
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - A creepy book, now made appropriately by the awesome Tim Burton.
• House of Flying Daggers - We own this movie, and I have yet to see it due to our hectic summer schedule. (Actually, every time we get the inkling to watch the movie, the Twins are on TV.)

I can't think of anymore movies to that need to be watched before school starts. However, I really want to see the extremely cheesy looking Dukes of Hazzard. That movie just looks fun!

Oh where, Oh where has my Torii gone

Those poor, poor Twinkies. Let's just some up today's game against the Red Sox - It sucked. Yes, there were many bright spots in the offense, Mauer's home run, Jacque's 2 Run Homerun in the 9th, Tiffee's first major league triple.

Now, the bad (th0ugh not horrible) parts of the game. Romero's homerun to Olerud. J.C., pitching to Olerud in the 8th, with the bases loaded, gave up a home run. That just sucked. Let's hope they do trade Romero for either Mueller or Youklis (from now on, I will call him Eucalyptus). I don't think I can see Romero pitch any more innings for the Twins. It seems like every time he comes in, he blows the game, or walks like 3 batters, or gives up a home run or two.

Now for the really, really bad - The bottom of the 5th inning. 2 errors on one fly ball to right field, that let 3 runners score for the Red Sox. Let's see, Silva throws to Mauer at Home, but shouldn't Silva have thrown toward home plate, and not toward the first base dug out. Then, Damon caught in a run down, L. Rodriguez throws the ball to Mauer (still covering home plate), but hits Damon in the back of the ol' noggin, allowing Damon to score. That just sucked, big time.

Now for the really, really, really, really, really horrible. Torii Hunter's injury in the bottom of the 1st inning. David Ortiz hit a ball deep into center field, and as usual, Torii chases the ball down and leaps at the wall for the catch, then ... OUCHERS, his cleats on his left foot catch the pads. Presently, the result is a Tendon Strain. Who knows how long he will be out. Lew Ford did a good job as a replacement (and I contend would be a starter on any other team), but not having Torii in the line up will hurt the Twins.

Enough ranting, I'm going to talk about something else.

Big Brother, I'm watching you

Well, the chaos has begun on Big Brother 6. Today, it was made official that all the contestants have been secretly (not anymore) paired up. Also today, for the first time this go around, a "secret" pair was put up for eviction. After the eviction, the remaining member of the pair won the Head of Household (HOH) competion and now gets to pick who to put up for eviction. Also revealed to the contestants, if any pair should make it to the final 2, the runner up wins 250K while the winner will receive 1 million dollars.

So, here's my question, how would you play the game? If you were HOH would you put up team members for eviction, or would you put up other alliances, or simply people who ticked you off. And if you teammate were put up, and you had Veto power, would you use it to save your teammate or your alliance, and risk being put up yourself? All tough questions. Right now my money is on Howie (playing the dumb guy) or Maggie (the really pissed off one right now) to win. I guess only time will tell.

On a different note, the Twins lost to the Yankees today. Tomorrow they go to Boston and play the Red Sox (obviously). I also expect them to announce a trade between the two teams exchanging either Mays or Romero for Mueller or Youklis(sp?). We really need a good third basemen and they really need a pitcher.

And lastly, today we had pizza for dinner. I made it from scratch, and because it was way to darn hot out for turning the oven on, I cooked the pizza on the grill outside. I must say it was quite tasty. I will have to do it again.

School is 27 days away

Well, school is around the corner, and here at the house we are gearing up. Today, we ran into Billings to buy school supplies. You gotta hand it to my wife, she found all the good deals in town. I go to buy pencils in one store, and she says, wait 'til our next stop, they are half that price. Man, what a deal shopper. Anyway, we got lots of good stuff like scissors, paper, folders, crayons, and markers. The markers were an incredibly good deal, 39 cents for a ten pack of crayola markers. WOWSER! (Of course we also bought some rawhide strips for the dog. What a spoiled dog!)

So, obviously I'm thinking about school. I've already started making plans on how I'm decorating my classroom. I think I'm turning my room 90 degrees so that I can use the LCD projector more frequently. I think we will go in Friday to work on the classroom. (We being, my wife, Santana, and myself.)

Yesterday was a quite relaxing day. It was very cold compared to the previous days. The last 3 weeks we had been averaging temperatures in the mid 90's, with some days approaching or reaching 100. Yesterday however, the high was 59 in Billings. The previous day, it was in the mid 90's. It also rained yesterday. Apparently there was an Earthquake in Montana yesterday also. It registered 5.6 on the Richter Scale. It happened around 10 pm or so. Apparently several of the bars near the epicenter couldn't serve beer for awhile because it shook up all the beer. I personally didn't feel it, probably because it was 235 miles away. Also, we were in bed. (But I thought the shaking was due to something else!)

So yesterday, the wife and I played a bit of simulated baseball. She traded for a new closer (Eric Gagne just sucked for her, but her new closer Kaz Sasaki is just lights out.) As a result, she is a game out of the wild card race and a game out of her division lead. I on the otherhand have gone backwards. Last year I finished the season 1 game behind the division leader (Just because I played them the last game and they beat me!!!). This season, I'm 14.5 games behind the division leader, and have the absolutely worst record in our league. Here's the worst part, I have one of the top pitching staff in our league, and second best in the majors. Problem is, I have the absolutely worst offense in the majors. (Well, after a bit of tweaking, I have the 2 worst offense.) So, with two months left in the season, I'm playing for the future and my wife is in the playoff race (again!)

So here's my question. What do you do when you see two Mountain goats coming for you?

And the HBP is ...

Like I'm going to tell. You'll just have to wait until you're done with the book.

Obviously, I've finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Good book, but a bit talky at times. The reason being though is that we learn much about Tom Riddle's past, and just what makes him tick.

And yes, someone does die in this book. If you're fairly observant while reading, you'll probably figure it out, along with who the Half-Blood Prince is.

I must warn you though, there is a MAJOR cliff-hanger at the end of the book. In fact, the end of this book reminds me of the end of "The Empire Strikes Back". Yes, it is quite dark, especially toward the end. Anyway, would love to hear any comments about people reading the book. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The web page you are looking for cannot be found

I'm starting my last class of the summer today. It's only two days long, which is nice.

So far, I'm learning lots. It's on web page design and authoring using Microsoft Frontpage. My goal is to use this information I learn in this class and apply it to my very own classroom website. I have learned lots of new tricks, but I'm still having difficulty trying to figure out what information to put on my own web site.

So in honor of my website, which won't be visible until the end of August, I present you a list of some of my favorite scientists:

1. Albert Einstein - What can I say, he's great and he has awesome hair.
2. Isaac Newton - He was a pompous ass, but he did invent calculus. To bad he tried to ruin Robert Hooke's legacy.
3. Bernouli - It's his principle that allows airplanes to fly. Plus his name sounds cool ... Bernouli.
4. Marie Curie - Figured out radiation. Her notebooks are still extremely radio-active.
5. B.F. Skinner - Brought science to psychology. To bad there's more to it than just reinforcement and punishment.
6. Aristotle - sure alot of his ideas were wrong, but a lot were right. He determine the anatomy of so many animals. But only 2 kingdoms, come on!
7. Gregor Mendel - Now we know why you look like your parents
8. Watson and Crick - Determined what DNA looked like and how it transmitted genetic information. Let's call them "The Gattica Guys"
9. Stanely Prusiner - Discovered Prions. Sure, the rest of the world loves him now, but in the mid-80's, most scientists thought he was nuts. Guess who looks stupid now (Yup, those guys in Scotland for insisting that Prions are still not the cause of BSE.)
10. Robert Hooke - Just because Newton dissed him