"Very busy week at work. I was there early and stayed late and was busy with GDC stuff all the time I was there. Made maps for Tile-03, Green Canyon. I liked the bathymetry maps best because they are a good example of my works of art.
Tony worked on Wednesday and Thursday night. The cancer dissected from Shauna Traweek's breast had not spread to the lymph nodes. She still has to undergo radiation treatment, and the Traweek's feel like the prayers in her behalf were answered. Thanks. There were the new wells to load into Tile-03, but most of the two evenings were spent loading China seismic data into Landmark. On Wednesday evening I missed a presentation which Albert Boulanger had told me about by Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) at Rice University about the future of fuel cells because I needed to work with Tony on the China data. Oh well! I do enjoy working with Tony. He is a good person. And the time is not right for me to be thinking about and working on the long-range energy issues that interest me so much.
There were Tile meetings, and marketing material prepared for D-TIPS. There were discussions about AVO formulas with Sam and Les and Mike Dunn. There was a lot of work with the data from China. There was a long review meeting of the seismic processing on Wednesday morning and new processing runs defined. I spent a lot of time interpreting horizons in trace vs offset seismic volumes. Picking the horizons, and then extracting amplitudes shows where there are amplitude anomalies on the far offset traces. We believe these are related to hydrocarbon accumulations. And there are a lot of these anomalies on the test seismic lines. One of the the Chinese test data sets was a bigger piece of a 3-D seismic survey. I interpreted the strike-slip flower fault structure, and did a series of amplitude studies. Very interesting work. Almost makes the commute bearable. Especially when I work until 7:30 at night and the traffic is almost bearable on the way back to Katy. Monday night I made it back in time for 24. Friday night I missed Enterprise, but made it home by 8:00 for JAG and Numb3rs.
I also read some from `Power to the People, by Vijay V. Viatheeswaran, and even came up with a couple of possible stanza's for Prime words from his writing:
Besides work there were two themes, either of which could
have made a good title for this week's Thoughtlet:
As mentioned last week, I purchased Sarah Ellyn's and Sarah Elizabeth's tickets to go to China. On Sunday Sara Elizabeth and I talked through the visa form and what she needs to do to get ready for the trip. On Monday I e-mailed the Visa and the electronic tickets to Uncle Lloyd, Aunt Luana, and to Sarah Elizabeth. On Tuesday morning I had a good conversation with Sara Ellyn (see http://www.walden3d.com/benin/letters/050329.html). She assures me she is not sick. She was excited to get the news I have purchased the China tickets. She explained to me how she told Sarah Elizabeth that I am optimistic, and often am not able to follow through with plans like these. Her response when I told her was: `This is huge, exciting news!' Sara Ellyn also sent two notes this week:
And:
There were also two e-mails from Uncle Lloyd this week:
And:
Melanie and Jared arrived on Saturday morning shortly after
General Conference started. It was nice to have a child's
family with us watching General Conference. Colby and I
walked to the park between General Conference sessions, and
Melanie, Jared, and Taylor drove to the park. It was fun
to play with the kids in the park. Colby and Jared both
like the little mechanical shovel a lot. Taylor and Colby
both like the same thing a lot of the time. Brings back
lots of memories. We watched the first hour of the second
session of General Conference. Then Andrea and I took Ben's
blue Saturn, and Melanie, Jared, Colby, and Taylor took
Melanie's red Saturn, and we drove to Intercontinental
Airport to pick up Sara Ellyn. Her two roommates and her
Mom were there. Sara looks great, with her long braided
hair and her stylish blue and white Benin dress. Her long
hug showed she was glad to see me. I was so emotional I
could not get any words to come out. Sara Ellyn, I hope
you know how glad I am to have you back from Africa safe.
Matt's Eagle Project has been a source of some consternation. However, I was pleased to see him decide on a project and get all of the necessary approvals. His project is to collect books and puzzles for M.D. Anderson's children cancer area for families and children to use while they wait. I think this is a very good Eagle Project.
Tuesday night was the Ward Temple night, and George Schultz came in to my office about 5:00 to see if I was going to go. I told him Andrea and I went last week, because she had a Seminary Training Session this week, and I was still trying to decide. I called home and learned that Matt was expecting me to help him with his Eagle Project. So I went home. When I got there, Matt wanted to go and get some paper bags to collect the books in. We went to Randall's, where Andrea had picked up 60 paper bags earlier in the day, and talked to the manager. They did not have any more they could give. Then we went to HEB and got 30 from one of the managers. We went to Walmart, and were told to come back after 9:00 AM the next morning. So we went to Kroger and got the last 30. Then we came back to the house and edited the letter to be stapled on each bag. Matt made 120 copies of the letter, and the two of us stapled the letter on the front of 120 garbage bags while we watched `Pirates of the Caribbean.' It was a nice evening.
Thursday night I had signed up to help with a Youth Temple trip. However, Matt had the pre-UIL concert for Taylor Choir and asked if I was going to attend. So when I got in the car to ride up to the temple with the other adults, I asked how many adults they had and needed, and they counted the number that were meeting at the temple, and said they did not need me. So I told them I was going to Matt's concert. Taylor Choir does a very nice job. There were 7 groups that sang 3 songs each. Matt was in the Concert Choir, a Non-Varsity Mixed Chorus, and they sang:
We also met the person who is putting together the Senior Parent Skit for the May 14th Awards Banquet. I will be in China most of the time between now and then, and Audrey's wedding will be at about the same time as this Banquet. I would like to do something for Matt, and I don't see how I will be able to do very much. Oh well!
Friday night when Matt went to bed he told us to wake him up at 7:00 AM so he could go help his Priest Quorum at Sister Caron's house. Saturday morning came and he did not want to get up. It turned into an argument between him and Andrea, and she ended up leaving and going on her run. Then Matt came downstairs and tried to lecture me about what had happened. I got in his face, and he did not like it. He did end up going about an hour late, and he was very mad at me. Oh well! I took out my reaction by digging up the three dead Red Tips roots that were in the back yard along the back fence. I asked if Matt wanted any help from me with collecting the full bags of books and puzzles from our neighbors. He said no, and so I had a shower. I did help sort them out. There were about ten boys who came to help with Matt's Eagle Project. It was nice to see him get some support from others in the church. I did help with the sorting of the collected items. And Matt came in the office later in the day and told me thanks for helping. I wish I knew how to make being a teenager easier.
Saturday evening, Matt did not want to go to Priesthood with me. Jared was funny when he said: `So he is punishing you by not going to priesthood meeting.' I said I guess so. Brother Gill, who moved from Nottingham Country Ward prior to the divorce, was there visiting his son. It was nice to see him. Jared knows several folks in the stake. As we walked out of the chapel, there was Matt with his black shirt on waiting for a ride. Andrea had dropped him off on her way to take Sara Ellyn's baggage to her Mom's house and to participate in the welcome home party while I went to Priesthood Meeting. As we were driving home, Matt said, `Arn't we going to out out for ice cream? After all it is a tradition.' So we went to Maggie Moo's, which he said was a better place than we had been going to. Both Matt and Jared seemed to like the ice cream. Andrea was home with Taylor when we got back. And there were a couple of new sacks full of books on the kitchen cabinet which had been picked up late and were not yet upstairs and sorted. Turns out they were not the last remnants of Matt's Eagle Project."