# Chateau de la Tobler

## Wednesday, April 30, 2008

### Kites and stuff

Samuel, I'm giggling over your troubles in the lab, but only because you fixed them. Thank goodness! But I'm giggling because I had a reputation in the Geology Dept--not just with cars and tires, but with equipment breaking JUST as I started to use it. The XRF was down for like three months, on and off, and it would work for other people's stuff (sometimes) and then stop working or start giving spurious results when my samples got put in--and often I wasn't the one putting the samples in! It just hated me. And the microprobe was in the same room, and it sometimes would act flaky around me--except it was a refurb from Russia, so it only cost the department $15000 instead of $30000, and some flakiness was expected.
But I'm super glad you fixed your pump, because it feels horrible to ruin something everyone else has to use, too. So you're going to use Ta instead of Pt--why Ta? Will the other Pt-group metals react with Si as well? And didn't you start with gold (or am I making things up)?
Telima is right about the cuteness of her babies. They are precious and funny. We went over to play the other day--in the backyard with Katy's new slide--and we had so much fun. It's nice to be over the stomach flu (mostly, as Mercy and Gideon still have very runny noses and croupy coughs), because even with pregnancy-nausea, I feel enough better to actually do things. It's a good thing, too, because Book Club (we're discussing "Number the Stars") is tonight at my house, and my house isn't really fit for people right now. So I have a lot to do today (which is why I'm sitting here writing on the internet. Procrastination, baby!).
Last night we went to the park to fly our new kite. Daddy and Ezra and Mercy had SO MUCH FUN--Gideon and I mostly just took pictures and sat and watched. Kites are a lot more fun then I remember from my childhood. Storms blew in yesterday afternoon and evening, and supposedly the temperature is supposed to go from 85 degrees yesterday to 48 degrees today. I don't know if I believe it, though. The sun is shining this morning, and it wasn't yesterday morning.
Not that you all care--how boring, talking about the weather! I love you all, though.

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