I'm back home after my travels to NorCal. First, I had a lot of fun; Turtle Bay Exploration Park is a cool place. They have some nice exhibits, and the park itself is quite lovely (even in cold rain). There is also the Sundial bridge, an extraordinary pedestrian bridge which goes over the Sacramento River. It was designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, who is renowned for his unusual use of materials and his sense of flow and motion. Here is one of many pictures I took of it:

The trip home was a whole lot easier then getting to Redding; no delays, no canceled flights, no midnight drives through towns with unmarked intersections. And then random coolness ensued. I got on my plane to go home, and as I was fidgeting in my seat getting my stuff organized, I look down the aisle to see President Jimmy Carter walking along, saying hi to everyone and shaking their hands! He was flanked by to Secret Service guys (one was wearing a tan sport jacket, not black, which surprised me) and being very cordial. I shook his hand when he came by, told him it was an honor, and he moved on. That was cool. The guy in the seat ahead of me was going nuts; he was reading a copy of Carter's book on the plane! He sent it up to Carter to get him to sign it; after the flight the Secret Service guy came back with his pen; as we deplaned I told him I saw them wrestle it to the ground, and got a laugh. Then, to top everything off, we got a lovely snow last night, and played with Canes Major and Minor as they romped around in it this morning. We drove downtown today (not easy, since it's still snowing and traffic was sllloooowwww) and got our tree, too. All in all, not a bad week. This whole not having a job thing has its advantages sometimes.