Wedding Photos!

We have all our wedding photos, and we have been dutifully culling through them to find the best photos. We have chosen a small selection of best photos, and then a larger collection of photos. Feel free to take a look at them if you have time. We had such a fantastic time at the wedding, and I am glad that it really shows in the photographs.

I ♥ Pluto

The title is an Op-Ed piece written in the New York Times by cartoonist Tim Kreider. I am much more fond of Kreider's explanations and rationale for keeping Pluto a planet than anything I have heard from any astronomer. He sums up very nicely what I feel as an astronomer: Pluto is a planet because it has been for the last 70 years, but that it is silly to induct more into the exclusive club. I have just read that at the IAU the vote is to demote Pluto to a minor planet. I am disappointed, but this is not the first time astronomy has disappointed me, and it won't be the last.

Woo-Pig Sooie

Courtney and I just returned from a trip to Arkansas. We went to a Bodenhamer Fellows dinner and were able to speak to Dr. Bodenhamer, Chancellor White, and many of my friends from the University of Arkansas. One nice thing is that we were able to pick up Aperture from the university bookstore, so now I can start organizing the 2000+ photos of the wedding that we just received from our photographer. Hopefully by this weekend I will have some photos online. For now, I am having some more trouble with cosines. Oh well.

Wet or Dry?

So, some of you probably will think it is crazy, but where I grew up in Arkansas we couldn't buy alcohol. Not at a restaurant or at the supermarket or anywhere else. I lived in a dry county, Saline. When you wanted to buy alcohol, you had to drive to Pulaski county, home of Little Rock. Recently, Saline county has been booming, as expansion from Little Rock pushes more people farther out. This was helped by a major expansion of the interstate between Saline and Pulaski County. Right now, across the interstate from my house, on some former pastures, construction companies are finishing a Super Target and an Old Navy. So for us at least, we are going big time. However, our restaurants continue to languish, with the only options being fast food and the occasional mom and pop establishment on the order of a Denny's. Some have suggested that the liquor laws are preventing us from having any "fine dining," which I mean to include Olive Garden or Red Lobster or any better than fast food options. I haven't quite made up my mind yet, but there is an article in the New York Times about counties deciding to go wet. It covers the issue pretty well, I think. On a toss-up, however, I would prefer to stay dry until I am certain that going wet would significantly help, because I see it has a one-shot deal. If Saline County goes wet, then there will never be an option to go dry again (I don't think).

First few pictures

So, a few wedding pictures are trickling in, which is probably a good thing, since we will probably be deluged with them when we receive the big package. This is one of my favorites so far. When we get them all, I will put them online, so all you voyeurs can see us in our wedding glory.

Rehearsal Dinner Video

Courtney and I made a video/slide show for the rehearsal dinner. It is basically a slide show of our pictures, with some of the wedding party included. I uploaded it so that everyone who wasn't at the rehearsal dinner can see it. It will take a little bit of time to download, because it is about 30 megabytes. The entire movie is about 12 minutes long.

Big C Project

So, I haven't been writing much because I am working on a big C project for a couple of weeks. Hopefully it will be finished by the time Sara comes back from Canada. Courtney and I have also been trying to get the apartment in order (to no avail), and we are possibly going down to Arkansas next week. Anybody have any tips on buying a car? We need one bad, since the AC is broken in Courtney's car. I am hoping to find a nice, used Toyota somewhere.