Both Boston and Los Alamos have shown us extremes of weather that we never saw back home. Today we had another massive hailstorm. This time the stones weren’t as large (my colleague whose car has an aluminium bonnet wasn’t rushing off to repark it under a tree) but they made up for that in number. I discovered while driving home that townsite got hit a lot harder than the lab. Here are some photos that Greg took during the storm.
Later, when I got home, Tycho and I played in the hail drifts.
Last night we had the rare occurance of having all three kids in the bath at once. So of course I had to get a photo. Particularly because baths will be scarce once we get back to NZ.
Today was the last convenient day to go out to lunch with friends from work so a bunch of us headed off to the largest restaurant in town – De Colores. Eventually we managed to get a table long enough to fit us all on so here we are, enjoying the meal and the company.
Another five days in the apartment here in Los Alamos and then we move into a hotel for the 4th and 5th. There are question marks over the fireworks displays this year as the weather has been extremely dry. A lot of the local counties have bans on fireworks sales to individuals. If the Los Alamos display is cancelled, it will make Greg very sad. Me, I was spoilt by the fantastic fireworks over the Charles River in Boston.
We are really in countdown mode now with a little over one week until we leave. I only have another five days at work to trap ions and four days at home to sell and clean everything. All of our small team members have colds (in the middle of summer – go figure) and will no doubt pick up another one on the long flight home. So maybe I’ll buy shares in Kleenex.
This weekend seemed to go by in a blur for some reason. We had a lovely afternoon on Saturday – collegues from work organised a going-away BBQ in Santa Fe. There are some great photos but I haven’t gotten any of them down off the camera yet.
Home is creeping ever closer. And wow, not a moment too soon. Except that we haven’t sold our car yet 🙁
It is very hot in New Mexico at the moment and the fire danger stands at red flag extreme. Apparently a fire in a canyon near the town site was started by fireworks on Tuesday morning but thanks to an alert early morning jogger, it was contained after burning less than a acre.
This weekend my lovely colleagues are throwing us a farewell party so I’m hoping to get some good photos of the team with people that they are pretty sure never to remember.
It was a gorgeous day today and everyone was out and about. I got this lovely photo of Tycho and his friend Taj
and this one of Halen with our neighbour Patti,
and Taj’s mother Rakiya. She loves Halen cause he is so cuddly. About a week ago she joked in Tycho’s hearing that she was going to take Halen home with her which provoked an outraged reaction. Now T tends to keep a close eye on anyone who looks like they might walk off with H. So don’t try that one unless you want to be blacklisted by a possessive bro.
Friday night we loaded up the family and headed down to Santa Fe to meet up with Mayly Sanchez, an old friend from Boston days who was in town for a neutrino conference. Mayly kindly acquiesced to having her hotel room invaded by Team Ball-Vant and we had a good catch up while fielding small people. By the time we made it back to the car for the trip home, Lenya was no longer having anything to do with cameras but Halen and Tycho both obliged.
Several people have told me how much they enjoy reading this blog and seeing up-to-date photos of the gang. Let me make a plug for blogging – it’s fun, easy and faster than writing many emails to many people. If any of you would like to try your hand at making your own online journal but don’t want to go to the trouble of getting your own blog site, just drop Greg an email and he will add you as a user to this site (that’s why it’s called BV family and friends). We offer free hosting and free technical support! Seriously, love to see you online here or elsewhere sometime soon.
Yesterday evening as we sat on the lawn before dinner, one of our good neighbours came up and asked to take a photo of us all as she and her family are off to Russia for a holiday today and won’t be back until after we leave. We obliged and got in a quick photo in return. Pictured are Oxana and Mila. Mila is about six months older than Tycho and they have had many happy hours playing together on the lawn and in the sandpit. Maybe someday Mila and her family will visit us in New Zealand!
Yes indeed, we are getting closer and closer to D Day (departure day you understand). We posted a whole lot more stuff on the lanl-sell list yesterday and were more or less caught in a hailstorm of phone calls and emails – looks like we didn’t ask enough for our printer B-). However it was nice to see it go to one of our friendly neighbours. Then we got really lucky – a couple came to buy a $2 electric mixer and a $1 plastic step stool. Turns out they’re in the middle of furnishing their new house – they now want to buy our chest of drawers, nightstands, clothes cube and possibly our bookcase and bed. The next big challenge will be selling the car. It got a bit of a spring cleaning yesterday and now we are listing it on craigslist, etc.
I’ve been low on photos recently but here’s one I took last night of Greg and Halen enjoying a cheerful moment (of which Halen has many). The All Blacks outfit has just been handed down from T to H – I think Tycho last wore it about a week ago. Had to fix the redeye; Halen gets it wicked bad because of the beautiful blue eyes that he inherited from both grandfathers. Interesting technical point – this photo was taken with Dad’s camera and it seems not to automatically create a thumbnail as our old camera does.
