Little did I know that I was the suckiest bowler in all of Virginia. My total score for a whole game was only 46!! But I more than doubled my score in the next couple of games. We had a blast. His work paid for everything, so people were playing game after game and ordering tons of drinks and food. Good times.
Saturday morning Lane declared he was not going in to work. yay!! We went to the national mall to check out the solar decathlon. 20 different schools competed by building fully functional solar powered homes that were on display for walk-thru tours. There were a series of 10 competitions for things like generating the most hot water, cooking a full meal and entertaining in the home, the market value, and all sorts of other things. We checked out our friend Scott's school and took pictures since he couldn't be there like he was hoping. We would have really liked to see him! I was fascinated touring the homes. They were built using all sorts of recycled materials - one house used recycled shredded denim for insulation and kitchen countertops made out of cement and recycled glass. There were systems set up to harness the rain water and use it on plants outside the homes. I would *totally* buy a solar powered home. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem very realistic because it's just not mainstream. I imagine that it would be SO expensive to design and get all the materials and have just one happy environmentally friendly solar powered home built. But it's totally the way to go. Here's the website so you can read all about it: http://www.solardecathlon.org/
We went across the street to Kabob Palace on Saturday night where we were happily greeted by our waiter from the first time we went (almost a year ago). He shook our hands and welcomed us, asking where we'd been for so long, and gave us samosas were on the house. Our kubideh and kabobs were simply delightful, as usual.Unfortunately, Lane did go into work on Sunday. When he was gone I made pizza dough, pizza sauce, and prepared goodies for making pizzas. Lane thought of an awesome combination - i was so proud. He used fresh tomatoes, fresh basil and goat cheese. It was creamy deliciousness. Mine, on the other hand was spicy sausage, marinated mushrooms and feta cheese - not nearly as exciting. I couldn't resist taking pictures of Lane's culinary genius.
3 comments:
Sounds like lots of fun activities! That solar stuff is amazing...as well as your pizzas! Glad you guys got some time together. I miss you!
I'm famous!
I was wondering if you guys were going to go the the Solar Decathlon, or as we nerds call it, "Solar-D".
You probably saw a Professor that I've worked with a lot while you were there. I'm designing a house for my parents with him that will have active solar power, uses SIP Panels for better insulation, and was designed using daylighting models so that they shouldn't have to use their lights except at night. My estimate right now is that it will use about 60% of the energy of a normal home, and the solar assembly will supply enough energy to give them a zero-net cost each year.
It's not as expensive as you'd think, though. The solar-D homes are, because they showcase a lot of prototype stuff that's just being developed, and they don't get the tax breaks that homeowners do. There's a lot that you can do in the design that is free, when you use an architect instead of a tract builder that plops down this model or that on sites without any thought to what would be best. (Did you notice my biased loathful tone?) I'll put pics up when it's done.
Anyways, it was cool to see the pics. CU's design wasn't nearly as cool as years past, and the team that won had some AWESOME stuff, so I hope you got to look through them all.
The main thing that I wanted to say, though, is how tasty that pizza looks. Here's Another idea, Pear and Gorgonzola with walnuts, and a cream sauce. So good. I had it in Aspen last summer on a whim, and went back for it three straight days after that.
Too much
Scotty,
I'm so glad to hear that it's not as crazy expensive as I thought. When I'm rich and famous I'm going to ask you to design our solar powered home. :)
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