Ever since the ASU physics department installed a pendulum wave set in F-wing, I've had a small part of my brain devoted to figuring out how it worked. The critical piece of information that eluded me was the function that determined the length of each pendulum. I could model the motion of a set of pendulums in a Java applet rather easily, but I couldn't get them to create the patters that the physical pendulum set could. I finally looked up a paper on the phenomenon and found the formula to tune the lengths, and I completed my applet.

I should also mention that I first found out about letterboxing and geocaching Friday morning, the day I was supposed to drive down to Ajo, from Wil Wheaton's website.

I just got back from Ajo visiting Kelly this weekend. I drove down Friday afternoon. It's actually quite a nice drive. The mountain ranges are really beautiful. We stayed in a little cabin at the motel. On Saturday, Kelly had to work, so I drove 30 miles south to Organ Pipe Cactus NM. That place is really cool. The Ajo mountains there are tilted fault blocks of a rhyolite and tuff sequence, kind of like the hills along the Vulture Mine Road west of Wickenburg (for those of you who were in Steve Reynold's Advanced Field Geology class). I hiked up the Bull Pasture/Estes Wash loop, and I swear when I reached the Bull Pasture, I just wanted to take off into the mountains. They're really cool. I wish I didn't forget my camera, but I'm sure I'll be back. There were a lot of wildflowers in bloom because of all the rain we had this winter. There were other plants that were just getting ready to bloom, so April will be a beautiful month. I even saw a stubby little cactus with a huge purple flower on top!

I also found the mystery letterbox. Letterboxing and Geocaching are two nationwide treasure-hunting games that are slowely gaining popularity. Geocaching is the more popular of the two, probably due to it's use of GPS to locate the cache. A geocache is simply a (hopefully) airtight plastic or metal canister filled with a logbook and a few trinkets. The GPS coordinates of the location of the cache are then posted to the website. People use their GPS to find the hidden cache, take one of the trinkets, and leave one of their own. It's kind of a fun group activity, and it gives people a reason to go out and appreciate the outdoors. Letterboxing is a more British approach to treasure-hunting. A letterbox contains a logbook and a rubber stamp, sometimes hand carved from an eraser. The finder of the letterbox has their own stamp to put into the logbook, and usually records the letterbox stamp in their own notebook. The main difference between letterboxing and geocaching is that only clues are given to the location of the letterbox, not GPS coordinates. This adds a bit of sleuthing to the fun, and it's a good feeling when you confirm that you've figured out the puzzle. The letterbox in Organ Pipe is a mystery letterbox in the sense that the nearest city is not given, but I guess that secret's out in the open now. Not that it was really hard to figure that part out anyway. It was still fun poring over the park map trying to figure out where it was. I'm not interesting in the stamping part of the hobby. I just liked figuring out the clues. Kelly thinks both letterboxing and geocaching are totally gay, but I can't help it when there's a fun puzzle to solve.

Kelly and I both took the day off yesterday to spend some quality time with each other. It was great. Today she took off for Ajo again, while I have to organize everything from my trip to Houston and start planning for my trip to New York next month.

I'm back from the conference now. The weather in Houston was pretty good. Usually it's really humid, but it wasn't this week. Everybody said my talk went well. I'm pretty satisfied by how everything went. But I'm definitely tired of going to talks all day and drinking all night.

It was great to see Kelly yesterday. I met her in Gila Bend because all of the Spring Breakers had filled up the Ajo motels on their way to Rocky Point. We just cuddled for most of the time. I had to go back to Phoenix today and get ready to leave for Houston tomorrow, but she got to see play with the dog this afternoon when her brother, Jace, and his wife, Tabby, came down to visit.

I'm stressing out over my talk at LPSC. It's this Tuesday, and I gave a shitty practice version yesterday. Today I just took the day off to chill and get a haircut. Things are so busy with LPSC coming up, plus I have to go visit Kelly in Ajo on Friday.

Kelly is in Ajo because a guy in the Tucson office decided to leave that assignment, so Kelly had to step in. Now this guy is leaving Clear Creek, and Kelly is the top choice for his replacement. If she accepts the position, she would move down to Tucson. On the one hand, this job would be great for her career because it's a step up in the company, but on the other hand it is a step back for our relationship, and it would be a hit on both our finances. For me, I'd have one less roommate to share the bills, and I'd probably have to give up my DVR and digital cable. For Kelly, she's still trying to pay off credit card bills, and she just got rid of a lot of furniture and stuff to move in with me. For selfish reasons, I want her to stay in Phoenix, but the decision is ultimately up to her.

On Saturday my roommate Clint and I went to the local indian casino. I spent $30 playing video poker. Oh well, what else can one expect from a casino?

Kelly is doing well in Ajo.

Thank goodness it's Friday! I'm going to leave ASU early and take a nap. I haven't been sleeping well because of my cold, so I'm just going to veg out and rest this weekend. I don't want to be sick or have any afteraffects by the time LPSC comes around.

Kelly left for her job in Ajo this morning. I miss her already. She was a little worried about being by herself, but I know she'll be okay. She's never had to go out of town for a job like this before.

I'm sick today. I was sick yesterday too. It sucks because I'm trying to put together my talk for LPSC, which I will be practicing on Tuesday, and it's difficult to concentrate. Kelly makes me feel better, though. She is supposed to go to Ajo this weekend to work on a job. I'm not sure how long she'll be gone, but I'll be in Houston before she gets back. I miss her already.

So this woman named Raffaela De Gregorio has emailed me a couple times. She's a nursing student in La Jolla, CA, and she wanted to know where I was from. That's a pretty vague question from a stranger over the internet, so I gave her an equally vague answer. Her email didn't seem like spam or a con, so I thought it was OK to reply as long as I don't give out any important information. Apparently, her father is from Naples and she is a first generation American, which is kinda cool. That's about all I know for now.