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Annie
said, "Yes."
On Tuesday, July
20th, my recently graduated lab assistant and Annie's
sweetheart, Tom Disher, stopped by my office. I
was busy helping some folks in the department and so I
kept him waiting. I had a very good idea why he
was there. He'd come to ask my permission to marry
Annie. I gave him that permission -- after
mentioning that I'd been expecting this conversation for
a good long while. Our chat was more of a
monologue, but it was friendly (and rambling) and Tom
was his usual good listener — his initial anxiety
allayed.
On Saturday the 24th, his parents Bob and Kim
from Dallas, Oregon, delivered a family heirloom to Tom.
The ring was that of Tom's great-grandmother.
So, when Annie went to SPU with JB
and me on the 27th, (on Jean's way to Shakespeare camp), with
Nathanael being dropped off at class at the UW, I had a
good idea what to expect. That morning, Tom and
Annie went to the Washington Arboretum on Lake
Washington. After he asked the eternal question and
received her "Yes," she
slapped his face . . . because there was a mosquito on it!
Then they laughed and Tom got his kiss. [
photo page
]
The rest of the Bellevue Sleight clan
learned the news after grace was said for dinner, Tom
having come home with us. They had not told me but they
could not help but telegraph the news I'd expected.
I was calm and content and did not let on about their
surprise. But it sure was a joyful grenade to toss
in our kitchen! (The middle shot below is of the call home to Oregon.)
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 Jeannie Beth is a Licensed Driver
This month Jeannie Beth completed drivers
education with Defensive Driving of Bellevue. Her
instructor remarked that she was the first student she could
remember to get a perfect score on the final written test.
Later that week she took her driving test and scored a 92, about
what her dad scored (on his second try).
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Marryat Sailed Under
Lord Cochrane Himself
It's hard to imagine that it's
taken me six years to discover the books of Captain
Frederick Marryat. I now own five of his books and am
reading Mr. Midshipman Easy, first published in
1836. The writing style is of a period
— but the adventure and
'seaworthiness' is the literary parent of Hornblower and
Jack Aubrey.
And the puns! Here we have humor and
wit straight from the wardroom and the quarterdeck.
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Ginger gets her 88th Birthday
Cruise
At the UPC Youth Auction in March, Ginger bid
on a summer cruise on Puget Sound. She well expected to be
outbid but such was not the case.
So on her 88th birthday, July 17th, our
family was hosted by Pastor Ray Moore and elders from the church
on the 55 foot Harmony cruiser out of Shilshole marina
in Ballard.
We cruised through the afternoon north of
Blake Island and south around Bainbridge Island. We
rejoined the Sound proper just past the Agate Pass bridge.
Our hosts, including Dr. Brian Smith who was
a classmate with me in the Ph.D. program at the UW, provided the
food and drink, and Annie and Jean made the cakes. Ray
Moore, who had baptized Annie and Nathanael, brought his homemade
ice cream.
As usual, I served as photographer and had
fun with my old-style 70-210mm push-pull lens.
The pictures are
here.
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It took some major retouching to remove the dust spots from the
pictures, but I especially liked this one of Mount Rainier which
I turned into a 1280x1024 wallpaper image. I'll use it as
wallpaper in my computer lab at school.
The Yang Ming container ship made a
nice background behind a picture of me. But when our boat
hit its wake, Ginger was just walking up to the bow and nearly
got tossed overboard. It was quite a fright for her -- but
a warning from Susan got Nathanael to jump up and cover her
until the violent motion subsided.
When we were taking group photos on the
bridge, three big cruise ships were leaving Elliot Bay for
Alaska -- and one of my shots had the family with "our" ship, the
Norwegian Star, in the background.
It was a fun and surprisingly tiring
celebration for all of us.
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 Jean
and Nancy Sing in
the UPC Summer Choir
Jeannie Beth and Nancy both love to sing, and
JB gets service hour credit for singing in the summer choir at
UPC.
The downside for me was needing to get to
church by 7:30 a.m. Getting up at 6:30 a.m. on workdays and 7:00
a.m. on many Saturdays (September to June), leaves me exhausted
on Sunday mornings.
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 Bits and Pieces
I love our cats, but discovering dainty Diana devouring a rat
she'd caught, or Shadow drinking from the toilet (indeed, we
still call her "the dog"), is still disturbing. Shadow is
getting fat but is still a playful "puppy."
I see Dr. Kelley again on August 2nd and my weight has crept
down to 186. I gave blood again this month, but overall, I feel
tired.
Annie took a week of classes at PLU in their AP Summer Institute
and received two graduate credits and additional preparation to
teach AP English Literature.
Nathanael got an incomplete in his University Scholars class and
has spent an excruciatingly long time writing his term paper on
Globalization and the Pencil. Taking Chem III and
Differential Equations at the University of Washington this
summer has kept him busy. He reports that he scored above
average on both midterm exams.
Jeannie Beth, as the lone returning senior runner on the BCS girls XC
team, has led by organizing summer runs. Attendance is
sparse as expected, but it's a good experience for JB and she's
been putting in more miles this summer than in the prior three.
The season race schedule
was announced and she's excited about racing again at the Bellevue Invite at Lake Sammamish, where she
had her best 5K time on that flat course.
At the end of July, Grandma Jean says, "I'd better not say it
out loud," when asked what she's thinking.
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Hoarding has its Benefits
When we built the house, we retired our picnic
table under a blue tarp by the shed. That was 17 years
ago. So when SBE asked me to find a picnic table for the
yard between McKenna Hall and the SBE Center House, I had one in
mind. Nancy and Nathanael refurbished and strengthened it.
and I finish staining it on site. And the SBE staff is
delighted with their new acquisition.
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 The
Summer Remodel of McKenna Hall
As the building manager for McKenna Hall (that is, the guy
responsible to the dean for everything about the building), I
have been his point man on a major remodeling project. Six
large faculty offices were emptied, and beginning on Tuesday,
July 6th, they were demolished and reconstructed as eight normal
sized offices. Construction was expected to take up to
five weeks but was completed in three.
I was responsible for getting all of the
faculty books and etc. packed away into the first floor lounge.
Beyond this, I'm dealing with computers, phones, signage, keys,
and coordinating between the SBE faculty and staff and the
Facilities and construction folks.
So far so good in July. Now I need to
get 19 of the 24 faculty moved to their new offices. And
before the end of August, I also need to prepare four offices
for new faculty. August 1st to 25th we get new carpet.
The big upside for me personally is that I
got a five-foot table out of my office (and eleven boxes of
books, papers, and equipment accumulated over 21 years at SPU)
and have an especially elegant office right now. After the new
carpet in August I'll have to get pictures.
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87,000 and Counting
My Nikon D300 camera records how many
pictures it's taken. It is rated for 150,000 -- 50,000 more
than my D70's. But online reports saying that the average
D300 shutter fails after 78,000 actuations has me worried that
I'll need to save up for a repair or replacement soon. I
love the D300 and would not want a newer model -- at least not
yet. Sports photography is hard on cameras.
My sailing photos this month reminded me that
the sensor on the camera has become quite dirty (and should have
been cleaned six months ago.) I've purchased a loupe
(right) for $74 to eye the low-pass filter that covers the
sensor and is the actual part that must be cleaned.
Cleaning fluid, a special "SensorWand" to hold cleaning pads,
and the Giottos Rocket (left), will let me save the $60+
cleaning fee charged by camera shops. (I paid an extra 50
cents to get a red rocket instead of the traditional black.
What a camera geek I've become.) All this gear will pay
for itself -- and at least I haven't bought any more lenses
recently.
Following instructional videos I found
online, my first cleaning attempt was a glorious success.
I'll need to take my backup D70 to
races this fall,
just in case the D300 is killed in action.
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