Blah, Blah, Blah

Hey everyone,
You'll be amazed at the breadth of the topics I cover in this post, so I didn't think I was capable of producing a quality title, so I didn't even try . . . obviously. Anyway, here I go. As I'm sure all of you are aware, OU is still #2 in the BCS. Uncle Kenny e-mailed and let me know he was proud of me for having my priorities straight and worrying about things like college football instead of the election results (I can't complain because the election was the day after the dogs got out, and I agreed I wouldn't complain if Bush won as long as we got Jester and Justice back). Anyway, I'm sure there are enough intelligent (as well as tons of less brilliant) people worrying about politics, someone with at least half a brain needs to voice an opinion about sports. Did anyone see Boise St. is now #7 in the BCS? Crazy. I'm half rooting for A&M this Friday to beat UT so Boise St. and Utah can move even higher . . . that would be cool (UT is currently 5th).
Ok, enough sports . . . at least for now. Hey mom, how many cars can you fit in your garage? We can fit both of ours in our garage (we finally got motivated to take the cardboard from moving to the recycle place) . . . on the way to get a new TV for the living room.
On a similar note, Jenn made me open presents for my b-day when I got home from school today. Seriously, it wasn't my idea . . . she made me. However, since some of you are sticklers, I won't tell you what I got until next Tuesday :-) (Tanya!)
Ok, just kidding . . . Jester and Justice got me a folder with pictures of a really cute puppy on it, as well as Golden Retriever a day calendar and a card signed in mud (it's been pretty wet, more on that later). Jenn helped them sign the card. Jenn got me a card and a spice rack from BB&B that spins around . . . it's pretty cool . . . and it comes filled with spices (which are expensive . . . did you know that Roy?).
Moving on, next topic . . . rain . . . rain . . . and more rain. I can't believe how wet it has been here lately. It's ridiculously like Juneau. I heard on the radio that it might snow tonight, though they then said it would be mixed rain and snow and it wouldn't stick, so I'm not so sure I'd call it snow, but it might be good we're heading a few miles south for the holiday, not that I can't drive in snow . . . it's the OK people I'm worried about :-) Anyway, it's been so wet here that the ground is just soggy, so when I take the dogs to the park, I don't worry about getting wet because it's inevitable, I might as well embrace it. Speaking of the dogs, Justice is learning to give hugs and is getting increasingly receptive to belly rubs (Meredith) and Jester has increased his stick fetching at the park greatly. One last comment on the soggy ground . . . I think it's a mixture of large amounts of rain and the type of dirt (red clay) . . . clay is a fairly fine material and has low hydraulic conductivity, so that helps keep water at the ground surface (I had to get a little civil engineering tidbit in there!). Plus, I've been working on a groundwater project for the last couple weeks (we think we are now done . . . aside from finalizing the presentation, but that's no problem) . . . so hydraulic conductivities and such are at the forefront of my mind.
Speaking of civil engineering projects, I met with my advisor, Dr. Kolar, and Dr. Vieux (who I have for WQM this semester and hydrology next semester) and we discussed research projects. We came up with coupling ADCIRC and Vflo, so coupling a coastal shallow water modelling software package with a distributed hydrologic model to predict storm flooding due to overland flow (run-off) and coastal storm surge - for areas like the SE US and Gulf Coast cities like Houston and New Orleans. I'm excited about it, although it seems like quite the undertaking at the moment.
Roy . . . one of my groundwater project group members said she was going to make pumkpin cheesecake with a ginger snap crust . . . thought you might like that . . . or do you not like pumpkin cheesecake anymore?
Well, I should go to bed, since I will have to do a fair amount of driving tomorrow (since Jenn will be tired - she's getting up at 4 to go to work so she can be done early . . . crazy girl). Anyway, have a fun and safe holiday weekend.
Night,
Evan