For Earth Hour this year, Mary and I decided to make a candlelight dinner. We got a late start, so we actually had to make dinner by candlelight (picture on right). Good thing we have a gas stove. We decided to make something simple: pasta. We made some multigrain penne and a spicy red pepper sauce with chicken sausage. With that we had some left over broccoli and some raw snap peas. To top it off, we had chardonnay and some sort of German mountain cheese (I’m not sure what that means, but it was tasty). We had everything out of the fridge and ready to cook by 8:25PM. The pasta and sauce were cooking and the wine was chilling in a bucket of ice when we turned out the lights.

Dinner was ready around 8:50. We ate by candlelight (picture on left). It was quite romantic. We enjoyed it so much that we decide we should do it every week (though maybe that was the wine talking). By the time we finished of dinner (and the bottle of wine) Earth Hour was over. With the lights on there was nothing left of Earth Hour except dirty dishes and an empty bottle of wine (picture on right). We’re looking forward to doing this again next year.

There are a few more pictures in the Earth Hour 2009 gallery.

We’ve finally moved in to the modern age. We got our first HDTV, a Sony KDL-52W4100 (pictured on left), late last week. To drive HD content, we also picked up a Sony PlayStation 3. I knew it serves as a great Blu-ray player but I didn’t realize how good even DVDs would look. This morning some guys from AT&T came by to install our new U-verse system. Now we have a 6 megabit Internet connection and 200+ channels of digital TV, including a lot of HD. Out TV stand arrived today as well (see picture). Now we don’t have to put the TV on our coffee table. Next up will be an A/V receiver.

Bay Area Peregrine nest cam watchers have something to get egg-cited about. The nests at San Jose City Hall and the PG&E building in San Francisco both produced eggs within a couple days of each other. On March 12, 2009, Clara and Esteban started their clutch in San Jose, while the San Francisco pair got their start (picture on left) on March 10. I probably won’t have much time to keep track of the San Jose pair this year, but let’s hope both nest have successful hatches!

Back on November 9, Mary and I went to Santa Cruz to see a presentation by Leopards, Etc., which is an organization run by Rob and Barbara Dicely dedicated to educating the public about the plight of the planet’s wildlife. With 25 years in education and more than 20 years of working with wildcats, Rob and Barbara provide a fun and educational presentation where the real stars are some of their cats. During the 60 minute presentation we got to meet 5 of their cats.

First up was Oksana, the Siberian Lynx. What a beautiful cat. She has such a thick coat of fur. Every time Rob ran his hand across her back a big clump of fur would fly off.During the presentation we learned that the original lynx was the North American bobcat which migrated up to Canada, across the land bridge to Siberia and all the way to Europe. Oksana, a female, was born on 5/8/94. Sadly, Siberian lynx are still legally hunted for their beautiful spotted furs. (The hunting of all other spotted cats was banned in 1975).

Next up was Kgosi, the King Cheetah. The cheetah is the fastest of all land animals, running up to 70 miles per hour in pursuit of their prey. A king cheetah differs from a normal cheetah in that the spots of is back have fused into stripes. Kgosi means king or headsman in the language of Botswana. He was born on 5/25/99. Between 1926 and 1975 there were only six confirmed sightings of King cheetahs in the wild.

Chimane the Ocelot is quite a climber. Ocelots inhabit brushy and forested regions from Texas well into South America. The beauty of the Ocelot’s coat makes it the best known small cat of the Americas and one of the most threatened. They are agile climbers and leapers, hunting mostly at night for small prey such as opossums, mice, rats and rabbits. Chimane, a female, was born in March of 1997.

Shoshone, the Cougar or mountain lion, is the largest of the purring cats. The mountain lion ranges in size from six to nine feet from nose to tail with weights between 75 and 110 pounds for females and between 100 and 200 pounds for males. Once common throughout North America, its habitat has been reduced to a restricted range west of the rocky mountains with a small remnant population in Florida. Shoshone was born on 4/25/04. She is named after a Native American tribe.

Mara is a Caracal. The caracal, or desert lynx, is a creature of the wide-open African savanna which also frequents scattered woodlands. Caracals are swift, powerful cats which can kill prey up to twice their body size. They weigh between 20 and 40 pounds and are between 24 and 30 inches long, excluding the tail. They range across the African savanna belt and as far as the Middle East and sand dune regions of southern Iran. In India, where caracals once sat at the feet of princes, only scant numbers remain. Mara was born on 9/3/91. She is named after the Mara river in the Kenyan Savanna.

All in all it was an interesting presentation; such a treat to see these wild cats in such close proximity. Rob and Barbara do educational programs all over the bay area. Their mission is to increase public awareness of the plight of vanishing wildlife species on this planet. A portion of their proceeds go to a variety of wildlife organizations. The rest goes toward the upkeep of their 20-some cats at their facility in Sabastapol, CA. If you’re in the Bay Area, check out their site and attend one of their programs. It’s quite and experience.

I’ve really been falling behind on my blogs. I guess I forgot what it’s like to actually have work to do every day. It’s been an adjustment, but it’s been pretty fun and exciting too.

One thing I did want to highlight from the past couple weeks was a concert that Mary and I went to.I happened to be looking through an upcoming events page on the web, and ran across a listing for the Soweto Gospel Choir playing at Stanford University. This two time Grammy Award winning group is from Soweto, South Africa. They are a terrific singing group performing spiritual and spirited songs in Zulu, Sotho and English.

The concert was really nice. It was at the Stanford Memorial Church: a beautiful, non-sectarian church built in the early 1900s. Although the sound system could have been a little better, it was an great setting for this group. The choir performed with no accompaniment other than two drums. They displayed a wide range of styles including an incredible version of Amazing Grace. Their costumes are full of vibrant colors and they even mix in a few short dance routines. If you have the opportunity, I would highly recommend going to see them.

In other news, Mary and I are heading off to London next week. I’m heading there to finally get some training on the products I have been representing for the past 1.5 months. Mary has managed to convince her boss to let her work remotely for the week and a half I need to be there. Hopefully well have a chance to see some sights on the weekend and get a good feel for life in London. It should be fun.