MRI and Self-Diagnosis

After researching the web for images of heatlhy and injured menisci and ACLs, I can't find anything obviously wrong with my meniscus. Unfortunately, I don't think my ACL looks very good.

The left image shows my PCL as a nice dark band. I can't find a slice of my knee that shows the same for my ACL. At best, it looks gray and frayed, like in the image on the right.


I showed both Sara and Terri over Skype's webcam, and they agree. Unfortunately, I won't go to the doctor again until two weeks from today, since I'll be out of town working this next week.

The Fox and the Magpie

As I was walking to my car after work today, I saw a fox sitting on some rocks near a construction site next to the parking lot. Two magpies were squawking at it.


One magpie kept pecking at the fox's back.


This went on for about five minutes. When the magpie went after the fox's tail, the fox had finally had enough!


Unfortunately, Google compresses the video so you can't quite see the details.

Trip to Sacramento

I went to the CalNex data meeting in Sacramento to give a talk (similar to my AGU talk) about methane emissions in L.A. and from rice fields.

I took off during a cloudy day in Colorado, which made for a nice sea of clouds lapping up against Longs Peak.


We reached California's Central Valley around sunset.


I was excited to see flooded rice fields!


Our hotel was near the former governor's mansion. The last governor to live there was Ronald Reagan.


Here's Cesar Chavez Park and the California EPA building, where the meeting was held.


The Capitol was surprisingly dull.


On my way home, one of the static discharge wicks on the wing of the plane kept vibrating, so I took a picture of it.

Summer is almost here

We finally had nice weather this weekend, with temperatures getting up near 80. Saturday, I walked downtown for coffee with Sara. I took a new path across the street from my place, which brought me past this garden I didn't know was there.


Nearing downtown, we passed what looked like new pine cone formation.


Today, I weeded my front "yard".



I couldn't fully enjoy the nice weather, because my knee's been acting up, and because I went into work for awhile today.

Nice View

My favorite view when I drive into work in the morning is of the mountains above Boulder. I especially like it after it's snowed up there, and the following morning is sunny and clear. Like this morning!



I also liked the sky when I left work this evening, so I stopped by the same spot on the way home.

Weekend

My friend and former coworker Ed was in town this weekend. Today I went golfing with him and Eli. It was my first golf of the season (in fact, the first since I hurt my knee last summer).


On my way into Boulder Saturday night, I took some sunset pictures. I tweaked the last two to make it appear closer to what my eyes saw.

Trivia

We didn't do so well at trivia this week -- 7th place for Greg, Tara (a coworker), me, Cora, and Trevor.


The highlight of the night came when Cora won eyeball bandages for answering a bonus question correctly.


Trevor was excited for the non-bandage eyeball sticker: