Snow is gone, almost 60 degrees today. Removed the plastic from the ice rink. Would have been cheaper to rent out an arena this year. Got to move on...

Easter dinner tomorrow at my mother's. She usually roasts a leg of lamb, which is great. My job is to bring a great wine -- this year I chose a 1995 Grand Puy Lacoste. We'll see that turns out.

We'll also see if we get a seat at church near our usual ones. The only-come-to-church-on-Christmas-or-Easter crowd makes it difficult, so we'll be leaving earlier than normal. A lot earlier.

Sunday night I was surprised to see lots of snow coming down (when I got beeped just before 2AM). It was the fluffiest snow possible, flying everywhere when I went to clean off the truck before going to work. We ended up with at least 3" on the vehicles, but less on the driveway.

Today was a messy one, with snow around noon followed by ice pellets and now rain. We can use the moisture.

Beth and many of her friends got their acceptance notices from Boston University yesterday. Buried in the paperwork was the tuition/room/board/fees. A mere $38,500!!!!!!!!!! I suspect she'll be going elsewhere, unless a sponsor wants to contact me at tuition@mherlihy.org (seriously) I'll be waiting... (seriously)

Back from the hike. It was a glorious day to be outside, and the trail protected us from the wind most of the time. Temperature was in the low 30's, so no finger-numbing conditions to deal with. It was definitely windy on the top, however!

It also wasn't all that clear -- low clouds and hazy skies. I have a couple of pictures at my personal pages..

I tried posting this last night, but Blogger must have been a bit under the weather:

Cold and windy. Flags were standing out straight on the flagpole at work today. 15 degrees this morning, wind chill around zero. Mt. Washington was 19 below zero, winds gusting to 112 mph, wind chill cold enough that it really doesn't matter.

Hiking up Mt. Major with my nephew, his wife, and another couple tomorrow. Not a big climb by a long shot, but a great view of the lake and surrounding mountains, even as far as the White Mountains on clear days. If I get any good pictures I'll post a link to them over here.

I'm going to dress warmly.

Ended up with about 6" of snow. More snow on the ground right now (spring) than at any time during the entire winter!

Regarding the Antarctic ice shelf news below, an interesting piece in yesterday's SmartTimes:
[ Begin quoted story about the article in the New York Times - SmartTimes is at http://www.smartertimes.com ]
The Times reports that "many experts said it was getting harder to find
any other explanation" of the ice-shelf breakup other than the buildup
of greenhouse gas emissions "that scientists believe are warming the
planet."

Well, just to put the matter in context, have a look at John Muir's 1879
essay "The Discovery of Glacier Bay."

Muir writes: "Glacier Bay is undoubtedly young as yet. Vancouver's
chart, made only a century ago, shows no trace of it, though found
admirably faithful in general. It seems probable, therefore, that even
then the entire bay was occupied by a glacier of which all those
described above, great through they are, were only tributaries. Nearly
as great a change has taken place in Sum Dum Bay since Vancouver's
visit, the main trunk glacier there having receded from eighteen to 25
miles from the line marked on his chart. Charley, who was here when a
boy, said that the place had so changed that he hardly recognized it, so
many new islands had been born in the meantime and so much ice had
vanished. As we have seen, this Icy Bay is being still farther extended
by the recession of the glaciers. That this whole system of fiords and
channels was added to the domain of the sea by glacial action is to my
mind certain."

Maybe it was greenhouse gas emissions back in 1879 that caused the
creation of Glacier Bay in Alaska. After all, the antipollution rules
were a lot less strict then than they are now. And maybe the
developments in Antarctica are indeed unprecedented and worthy of
top-of-the-front-page treatment by the New York Times. It certainly has
been a warm winter here in New York. But a bit more skepticism and
historical perspective is probably in order here.

[End quoted story]

... and the snow returns -- now that spring arrived at 2:16 PM today. Monday's snow was the first "measurable" snowfall since February 1 here in Dover, NH. It was almost all gone this morning, but we're supposed to get 4-8 inches tonight.

****
Unrelated random comment follows:

I can't seem to get any of the search engines to pick up on the mherlihy.org web pages. I added META tags that should trigger results, followed all the rules in books and articles, but still don't get recognized. I even went to a couple of "submit your site" sites, without results. If anyone out there has suggestions, please let me know at help@mherlihy.org. Thanks in advance.

Mmmm...

ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF COLLAPSES
from The Associated Press

LONDON -- A large Antarctic ice shelf in an area that is warming faster than the global average has collapsed with "staggering" rapidity, British scientists said Tuesday.

The shelf designated as Larsen B, 650 feet thick and with a surface area of 1,250 square miles, has collapsed into small icebergs and fragments, the British Antarctic Survey said. Before breaking apart, the ice shelf was about the size of Rhode Island.

The collapse was first detected on satellite images earlier this month by Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado.
<http://www.latimes.com/news/science/wire/sns-ap-antarctic-ice0319mar19.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dscience%2Dheadlines>

Well, I should have realized that a smooth Saturday would mean a trouble-filled Sunday night. It was, but nothing major enough to force us to back things out -- not that we could without very high risk. Lots of little things to keep me up late and get me up even earlier than is usual for me.

Then today there were several things that made us wonder whether our changes were causing things to go wrong, but each of them seem to be unrelated. I hate when things look like we might have screwed something up, just to have the "users" write back later and say "Never mind, I messed up. It wasn't the application" Ugh!

I'm better now... I get the night off to catch up on sleep.

Hey - I almost forgot to mention the snow! Must not be globally warming after all.

Another bike ride today, but it was a bit cooler than I had expected. Pretty stiff breeze as well.

Expecting a mixed-bag week weather-wise, still not too favorable for riding to work.

At least the big implementation went smoothly yesterday. Tonight is the execution that will make or break it.

Yesterday I attended a class in Boston at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. It was called "Presenting Data and Information", by Edward Tufte (http://www.edwardtufte.com). Very interesting and instructive. All the attendees got copies of each of his books, and he spent time signing them prior to the start of the session.

I should be more careful when riding the bus, however, and make sure I know where the terminal is! I hadn't taken it in almost 10 years (don't get to the big city often), and they had moved the terminal because of the "big dig"! I had gotten off the bus on the way in at a stop prior to the terminal, and ended up spending a couple of extra minutes finding the new place. The driver had just closed the door as I approached the bus, but she let me on without incident.

Sure beats driving, and the $19 fare is barely more than the $16 parking around Copley Place.

Been going crazy with work for the past couple of weeks, and at least one more to go. A big project that's going in production next Saturday (if all goes well), and the the *real* testing begins! This one's going in before it should because of some really tight dependencies. Crossing fingers may not be enough.

I did manage a little tennis with Peter this afternoon, followed by a 14+ mile bike ride. Kind of windy, but at 61 degrees I couldn't pass it up.