Tornado Central

Well, all of our belongings are now in the new apartment! Many thanks to Gabe and Phil for helping us move all our stuff. The entire move took MUCH longer than we had anticipated... We ended up leaving the old apt at 4:30am Sunday, with plans to go to our new one (in Edmond) to sleep a few hours. Kim got up to head back down to OUN to clean the rest of the old apt, while I packed for this week in MN and for the honeymoon. Well, the vacuum got clogged, so I went back down to OUN to help Kim finish up that apt. Needless to say, we each got about 2.5-3 hours of sleep.

What, it's 2:10am, and we're still 4.5 hours from home? We left OUN around 6:00 Sunday evening, and we've made it to Bethany MO at this time. My last tank lasted only 240mi, meaning that I got 16.4 mpg hauling the U-Haul trailer... Eek! We've stopped a couple of times to take cat naps, and I'm about to get some shut-eye here soon. If we leave near 2:45am, we can make it home by 7:30am. Kim's very tired, so we may need to stop at least once more. I have a feeling that we will finally pull into our houses near 8:30am. Perhaps it would have been more efficient to have gotten a room in Kansas City, slept for 6 hours, and left early in the morning (5-6am) to make the rest of the journey home. These piecewise / cat naps work to a certain point, but not too well if we are already sleep deprived over the past few days.

In other news... Hurricane Daniel is weakening, after persisting as a very strong Cat 4 hurricane. The latest NHC forecast brings Daniel as a moderately strong tropical storm right over Maui, Lanai, and Oahu by the end of the week. Wait, we're going to Hawaii soon... We're arriving in Maui Sunday evening, so the direct effects of the tropical cyclone should be gone. If it slows down any, we may be dealing with flight delays. I don't think Hawaii has had a direct hit from a strong tropical storm or hurricane for several years (perhaps a decade), so the timing is incredible (and entirely coincidental) that it occurs near our honeymoon.

I've finally post-processed a bunch of pictures from last summer. Said pictures are from several different events, including our trip to San Diego, Peter's high school graduation at the Cathedral of Saint Paul, and OU's 2006 graduation ceremony. All of these can be viewed by clicking the links in this post, clicking on the "Other" button in the menu to the left, or going to http://www.tornadocentral.com/events.php .

The wedding is nearing, as is the honeymoon :) I'll have to keep this blog post short since my keyboard is driving me nuts. For the past 3 weeks, the down arrow/button hasn't been working well, leaving me to scroll with the mouse (touchpad to be specific). Well, I took apart the keyboard today and clean it out (lots of cat hair, etc). Now, the down arrow/button works correctly, but I've lost the ability to type the '>' character! Despite being on the same key as the period (.), I can't type the right angle bracket (shift + period key). Why does holding the shift key down not allow the computer to register the period key, not allow me to type the right angle bracket? Ugh. Oddly enough, it doesn't matter which SHIFT key I hold down -- neither will register the period/right angle backet key. I guess I use the down arrow/button more often than the right angle bracket (chevron), so it's better than it has been the past few weeks. I may send the laptop in to Dell once Kim gets her laptop next month. I've been quite pleased with Dell service/repair, which is usually very prompt. I'd rather not having anything go wrong in the first place, but that's inevitable with any laptop or computer I fear.

I just remembered that I need to get fitted for my tux. Would it be bad if the only male in the wedding party without a tux is the groom? LOL. Once Kim gets back to good health, we'll be very busy cleaning and packing for the big apartment move the end of next week.

I (and many others) moved into the new National Weather Center late last week. It's actually quite a building -- very nice! The offices are much larger (on the whole) than most in the old Sarkeys Energy Center (previous home of the School of Meteorology). Being on the 5th floor also allows for very good views! The observation deck and open patio/roof present nice photography potential as well. Two thumbs up!

On an unrelated note, I got a kick out of President Bush's attempt to make the $296 billion deficit sound like a God-send. Sure, it's not the $350+ billion previously "esimated" several months ago, but let's be real -- it's still a MASSIVE deficit! Obviously, the White House spin machine is running full-steam, since it's unbelievable that a President would tout a nearly $300 billion deficit as progress. Of course, he's out of office in a few more years, so the administration couldn't care less what we'll have to pay in 20-30 years when interest on our national debt along grows to a point at which taxes will have no option but to increase. I'm enjoying the relatively low federal taxes right now, since I know what's coming 20 years down the road. Anytime anyone brings up the fact that Bush inherited a budget SURPLUS and has turned that into record-breaking DEFICITS, they are countered by arguments about the cost of war and the tech implosion following the 90s tech boom. War does cost a lot, but you MUST increase revenues to pay for it. The economy is doing pretty well right now, and the fact that the budget deficit is still massive should tell you something about the financial irresponsibility of the current administration. I can't imagine that the average American realizes that the government spends more than $300 BILLION each year paying off INTEREST on the national debt. I know of a LOT of projects and organizations that could benefit from a tiny fraction of that money, and it'll only get more expensive as the deficits and debt continue to blossom. HERE is a graphic displaying the national debt through the past decade or two. Do you notice what's happened in the past 4 years? I know, I know -- it's not easy to campaign on a platform of increasing taxes.

I just wish I could charge a lot of stuff on my Visa and tell Visa that I don't need to pay it off. Hey, the administration is doing that, so why can't I? HERE'S an interesting take on this budget announcement (from NPR).