Smiling Abbey

I found a large, slightly non-squirrely squirrel in our yard last week.  He gave me a tour of of sprung spring flowers:

We have several wisteria vines …

Ours is a Japanese version, which twists clockwise as it climbs.   Factoid for the day:  92% of all vines twist counter-clockwise, including the Chinese wisteria, and nobody knows why.  Theories relating to hemisphere (e.g. sun direction, Coriolis force) don’t hold up as that 92% is the same for both hemispheres.

Not satiated with our abundant flowers, this thief stole a few from the hills on one of our hikes:

We have several interesting visitors recently.   These 2 tech guys from CA dropped by on their way back from competing in a Russian trivia contest … anyone know what trick UPS discovered in 2007 that saved them 3% in fuel savings?   Answer below.

This Russian visitor is couch surfing his way around the US in 2 months, blogging photos and experiences,  helping to dispel some of the mis-conceptions that Russians have about the US.

This was a work meeting with the University Magnetoencephalograpyh team (aka, MEG, a big machine that maps brain activity by recording magnetic fields):

The team surgeon, Paul, recently splurged on a slightly used Nissan GT-R sports car … a 4 while drive screamer with massively wide tires … Zach wants one.   Or two: 

Last night we had a graduation party for Abbey.  My challenge was to try to get a picture of her NOT smiling:

I tried really hard, but her latency is about 1/4 second less than my camera latency:

We got to visit lots of Tates, here Tim, Ben, Bryan, Cristi, and Brynn (Erica was chasing the floor cleaning robot):

And and other friends:

Abbey’s Colin, bravely made his debut to the Tate clan, after just barely making it back from a 3 week trip to South Africa where, on the last day, he got picked of his passport and all his money and thus missed his flight.   He was sleep deprived, but held up well:

Lots of merriment, including drumming by Tim and Erica:

And pianoing by Brynn who just started taking lessons:

By midnight, I still did not have a single photo of Abbey not smiling.  In this one she got me twice!  (we had a sequence of Abbey photos playing on the TV):

Tonight we are picking up Nick for a 5 day layover on his way to CA!

Bruce

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The UPS trick?   No left hand turns.   Even though making only right hand turns will make for more miles,  it takes less time and less gas with no idling while yielding for oncoming traffic.  

I just came up with a new theory on the vine question.   The Japanese, known for the expertise in efficiency,  taught their Wisteria vines to also only make right hand turns, trumping the other 92% of vine makers that all make only left hand turns.  Helps with all that traffic the vines run into <smile>.