Month: February 2010

Wow! Obama goes nuclear in a tough winter for enviros. One newspaper headline said.

Really, I don’t think so. Nuclear is very “GREEN” and good for the employment. But, he just released 8 billions out of 18.5 billions that has already been approved before him. I hope he will go further and continue to release more, up to 85 billions as he has promised. But, he has promised a lot. Hasn’t he?

But, most importantly, “nuclear” is good for employment, much better than others. Without “employment”, nothing else will happen. In math jargon, “employment” is the necessary and sufficient condition for “GREEN” to grow.

Last night, Vince’s cub scout troop held their annual dinner to celebrate the oldest cub scouts moving onto boy scouts. In the past, they had the event catered, but this year to save money, the parents cooked a spaghetti dinner – a record breaking low per person cost of less than $3 for basically all you can eat pasta, rolls, hot dogs and cookies. I think it was almost half as much as they spent the previous years on food.

Jeremy made a cake:

and served it:

Jeremy and Edda holding up 2 fingers which means “be quiet and pay attention”. Everyone is suppose to notice and put up their own two fingers and be quiet. It didn’t really work that well.

The actual ceremony was a little hokey – but what can you say? They had an old-fashioned fake fireplace fire going. No pictures of Vince, he was moving too fast to capture on (digital) film.

After the White House tour (which took only 30 minutes), we headed to the Natural History Museum. They have a live butterfly exhibit!

Wake up Edda, you are missing the butterflies… (do you see Vince’s tie? – he dressed up for the White House, you know, just in case we saw the president).

I consider teaching the parents how to use a GPS a success. I think they really find it really useful. We used it to drive from Li-Pei’s house to a restaurant in SF. Also Mom & Dad used to drive back to Li-Pei’s place. Pretty much with minimal input from me, they were able to navigate in both directions. Yea!

Went to the White House today, very exciting after a spending nearly a whole week in the house being all snowed under. It is not possible to just show up at the White House and go on a tour – I think you have to ask three months before you want to go; I got to go through my alumni organization who managed to get 150 tickets which were distributed among the members. Saw the China Room, the Red, Blue and Green Rooms, East Room, the State Dining room. Jeremy and Edda got extra lucky – because Edda was in her wheelchair and couldn’t manage the long staircase up to the 2nd floor, Jeremy and Edda got to go through part of the cordoned-off West Wing. Turns out, they got to go through the White House kitchen – something that Jeremy always loves to check out. He said that they were not very busy and it was very clean. I told them that he should have asked for a snack. Sorry no photos! I was not allowed to bring my camera (although I was a little bit miffed by this rule because cell phones were allowed, so we all had cameras, just very little ones.)

This evening, in celebration of the Olympics, we moved a little dining room table to right in front of the TV. Our massive 19″ TV.

On the morning walk:

Jeremy shoveled a lot today. We have a pretty big driveway, our street is narrow and there really is nowhere left to put the snow. So Jeremy made a ramp to the middle of the lawn and started dumping wheelbarrow loads of snow in the middle of the yard.

You gotta get a running start:

Then up the ramp and dump!

The pile is a good 8 feet high (I know I look pregnant in the photo. Please disregard. I am not pregnant.):

The official ballot summary prepared by the Office of the Attorney General of the State of California says:

“Requires local governments to obtain the approval of two-thirds of the voters before providing electricity to new customers or expanding such service to new territories if any public funds or bonds are involved. Requires same two-thirds vote to provide electricity through a community choice program if any public funds or bonds are involved. Requires the vote to be in the jurisdiction of the local government and any new territory to be served. Provides exceptions to the jurisdiction of the voting requirements for a limited number of identified projects.”

PG&E’s (Diablo Canyon Power Plant is part of PG&E) response:

…
…
…

As California learned during the 2000-2001 energy crisis, when government takes on the added responsibility of serving as an electricity provider, customers and taxpayers can be forced to take on billions of added debt that can take decades to repay with no assurance of any benefit.

We are encouraged by the backing Proposition 16 has already received throughout the state. On November 16, 2009, the committee supporting the initiative turned in more than 1.1 million signatures to local registrars. On January 12, 2010, the Secretary of State certified it for the June 8 ballot.

In the months ahead, we expect that support will continue to grow as more taxpayers learn about Proposition 16. We hope this will include every member of the PG&E team, and we encourage you to help get the word out about the importance of this measure. You’ll be hearing more in the near future about opportunities to do just that. In the meantime, for more information, click here for frequently asked questions, or click here for a link to the Taxpayers Right to Vote Web site.

Thank you.
Peter Darbee
Chairman, CEO and President
PG&E Corporation

Chris Johns
President
Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Well, this snow storm was a doozy. I got up and worked a little – then I thought I’d take Ruby for a walk. We made it about 7 houses before we turned back. The snow was going sideways because of the wind, pelting my poor eyeballs. All day, we could barely see out our windows because the snow/wind was so terrific. Went back to work. All day. While the rest of the government was shut down.

Birdfeeders outside my office window were busy all day with birds that didn’t know what hit them and had to find food fast. I finally got a woodpecker to visit my suet.

Jeremy’s downtown office was closed, but he was on a conference call at noon.

The amount of homemade bread made in this house in the past week has been insane.

Yawn. I’m tired too. Going to bed. Tomorrow shoveling. Good night!

The federal government has been closed for 2.5 days now – I suspect it will be closed tomorrow, but since I telework, I get no weather related leave. There has been some grumbling among my fellow teleworkers, but I’m very happy to trade in a few days of working at home under a blanket of snow for the flexibility that working from home affords me.

Luckily the power and the internet connections have held up and Eliana has been very helpful on the child care front. Oh yeah, schools have been canceled for the rest of the WEEK!

Here are the troops this morning. Still in PJs. Edda’s hair has a cute little curl in it today for some reason.