Thanksgiving

Hi everyone! Today, my mama decided to help me write my blog. Daddy is still sleeping off his trytophan from the turkey they had today down in Green Valley. First, sad news about my Grandpa Jim, he passed away last Saturday. I loved him very much, and it was a gift from God that I was able to meet him. I know that he will always be with me, but, as mama says, "Life goes on". As long as his memory is still around, he will always be with us.

Yesterday, mama, daddy, and Ti'o Jimmy (mama's brother), and I went up a mountain that was supposed to have a bunch of lemons on top (Mount Lemmon). It was stormy near our house, so to see the sunset from above was beautiful! Here are some pics from up in the mountains:

Later, we went to dinner at a noisy place called Pinnacle Peak. Tio says there was a lot of "stimulation" for me and I learned, or taught myself, a new trick! Here is the video of it:

I really enjoyed meeting my Tio and had lots of fun with him! Last week, I also enjoyed meeting Uncle Don and Aunt Marilyn, Aunt Julie, and Mama's and Grandpa Jim's friend Claire.

I really want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Mama and daddy say this is a day when of Pilgrims and Indians gave thanks to God for a good harvest somewhere in a place called Plymouth Rock.

Today, I ate with mama, daddy, Grandma and Grandpa Nebeker, Grandma Lynda, and Tio. Here is a pic of all of us:

Well, here I will say goodnight, and Happy Turkey Day to everyone!

Love,

Ashton James Nebeker

Family

Hello everyone! Things are a bit challenging at home right now. My Grandpa Jim is very sick and I pray for him every minute. I thank God every day that I have had the opportunity to meet him. Grandpa is a very good man, who knows a lot, and cares a lot about people. I can tell this as I look into my mama's eyes. I love my mama so much, I can just imagine how much she loves him, and he loves her. This is what family is all about.... The blood that runs through my veins includes many, many good people who have sacrifice much through the decades. My Grandpa Jim is from Washington, just like my mama. From what I have learned in my short life with him, Grandpa has four children, Aunt Heidi, Uncle Jim, Aunt Julie, and Mama.

I know that he spent time in the army, in particular, he worked a bit in the intelligence area. Not exactly sure what that means, but I am impressed that he served our country. I know that Grandpa is very talented in business. I think he worked with stocks and stuff like that. Whenever Daddy asks him questions about money, I am amazed about how well and how much he knows about it. Grandpa really likes sports, and in particular the University of Washington sports. I think part of that is because his Grandpa participated in sports for the University of Washington. My mama is a big fan of University of Washington football, Grandpa started taking her to the football games when she was really young. I also know that Grandpa took my mama camping at least once. He told me stories of mountains and goats, and everything. I can just see my mama camping with Grandpa.....

Here is a picture of Grandpa's grandparents: I think my Grandpa's grandpa's name was Carl. I know that he ran track for the University of Washington. Also I know that he climbed big mountains (Mount Elias?), and worked as a surveyor in the Phillipines, I believe. I think that great-great-great Grandpa Morford's adventurous blood transferred down to Grandpa Jim's blood. Grandpa told me stories like the one where his friends and he spent a really cold night on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. I believe it was in November or so, and man, Daddy has emphasized to me how cold that could be. Grandpa also told me of the time he went white water rafting in Costa Rica. Mama and Daddy have been to Costa Rica, but they didn't go white water rafting, those wimps...

I believe that I will develop the adventurous blood that my Morford forefathers have.



I also think that Grandpa really likes the water. Up in Seattle, Grandpa, Grandma and Mama use to live right up to where there was some water. Last year daddy and mama took a boat to see where they used to live. Grandpa and grandma used to like going sailing when they were in Washington. I seem to remember a story of Grandma and Grandpa sailing and nearly getting caught in the dark out in the Sound while Sailing.

Grandpa is a good man. It is time for me to take a nap, so I need to close this out. There are so many things I can say, but it'll have to wait to another time. Always remember that we are the product of those who came before us. I promise to try to live a good life so that my family both on the Morford side and the Nebeker side will be proud of me. I am proud of them because it was because of all of them and their love for each other that I am here today on this beautiful Earth.

Love,

Ashton James Nebeker

The Joy of Entropy

Today, Daddy decided to teach me a little bit about his favorite subject, it's something called entropy (or "s" as he would call it).

Apparently, as Daddy would say, entropy is a measure of disorganization of the universe.  He says that the rate of change of entropy in the universe is greater than zero.  However, he tells me of a process called an "isentropic process" where the change in entropy is zero.  He says that perhaps locally the change can be zero, but always to remember that for a real process, the overall change of entropy in the universe will always  be greater than zero.  Now, he says that an example of this isentropic process is the "ideal cycle".    He says that entropy can be described by the following equation:  .  This states that the amount of energy in the form of heat that crosses a control volume must be the same or smaller than the temperature of that control volume times the amount of change of energy within that volume...  Actually, Daddy just corrected me on how to say this (he does have a PhD, ya know), he says that the amount of change in the entropy within a control volume will always be at least the same (if not larger) than the amount of heat energy which crosses the border divided by the temperature of the surface by which it transfers.  He also wants to point out to me that always to remember that the temperature should be expressed in terms of Kelvin, unless you are an English units baby, where it should be expressed in terms of Rankine.Daddy does say that because of entropy, time can only go forward.  I really do not understand this but he insists that this is the most important contribution of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.   He read to me this book called Energy, and I was totally intrigued by it.  He told me of all the great scientist who tried to deal with the subject, including a Frenchman who didn't own a car (Carnot), and a cool Scottsman named William Thompson (who is also named Lord Kelvin).  Daddy is a total fan of Lord Kelvin, who he said was a really smart guy.  However through my research, I found out that Mr. Kelvin thought that the Sun derived it's power from the impact of hundreds of thousands of meteors hitting it all the time.  Now, I may have just been born yesterday (well, 6 1/2 weeks ago), but that is a pretty funny thought.  Daddy also tells me that the town of Kelvin near his hometown of Kearny is named after Lord Kelvin, because back in the 19th century Kelvin was a major sponsor of mining in Arizona.

So, Daddy just wanted to show one more picture, I had what he calls an 80's preppy moment, what I say is I am just my father's son, as I found out from Daddy's friends at work that he forgets to put his collar down when he walks into the lab.  I am a big boy now, I weigh 11 lbs 3 ozs now, and I was measured to be about 23 1/2 inches head to toe.  I can't wait until I get to be 2 feet tall. 

Now, Mama and Daddy are taking me to a drive in Movie to go see my namesake James Bond.

I can't wait to see my first movie, it will be pretty awesome.  I hope to see you all soon, 

Love,

Ashton James (Bond) Nebeker

I found some of Daddy's Baby Pictures

Well, I just wanted to defend myself, as Daddy says that I have a pretty loud cry. He claims that he didn't cry as a baby. Well, I beg to differ. I was cruisin' his pictures today, and I came across a few interesting pictures.... :)

Smiling and Crying

Mama and Daddy tell me that I am growing up, that made me happy, so over the past few days, I have begun to smile for my cookey parents.  Today, we had a lot of fun, we went out to eat lunch at IHOP, and I got to meet a man who makes balloon animals....  He said in about a year, he will make me an animal.  Then after that, we went to what my daddy calls the red-neck paradise, a place called Walmart.  There were sooo many things there, I just didn't know what to get.

Mama and Daddy had some time on their hands today because Daddy had originally thought that there was an ASU football game up in Tempe today.  Then he found out it really was up in Seattle where my mama grew up.  Daddy says that Seattle is a strange, wet and dark place, where there is Starbuck's on every corner, and everyone lists to music from some group that is very Nervous, or something like that.  Daddy said he went up there with Mama a year and a half ago.  He said that there are things called trees there, and also something called grass, which is apparently some type of plant that grows in the ground, and is the color of green.  I am not sure what green is, but mama and daddy promise that one day I will learn about it when daddy eats something bad.....

Now, Daddy wanted me to include the next two pictures in my blog to make sure that everyone knows that it isn't always a "bed of roses" as he would say.  Below, we are both doing a little bit of crying, I am crying because I hadn't been fed that hour, and Daddy is crying because he just learned how my education will cost him over the next 22 or so years....

                  

We are both doing better now though...  Mama came to the rescue with some good stuff to eat, and Daddy is now saying a strange word sounding like "student-loans"..  Now, I don't know what that word means yet, but Daddy keeps saying something like "Well, my parents didn't give me a cent to go to college".  But of course, I have done my research, and my grandma and grandpa told me to ask Daddy about all those times he brought home his clothes to washed by grandma, and to have his car fixed by grandpa...  Apparently, he still does this sometimes....

      

I just want to say a few more things...   I am looking forward to going down to Green (??) Valley tomorrow to see Grandma and Grandpa Morford.  We are going to get to eat at the cafeteria.  I have asked Daddy if I can bring my new friend Guido.  Oh, you haven't met Guido yet?  Let me put a picture of him here.  I met Guido a few days ago, and I am really impressed by his outlook on his life.   I think Guido will like talking to my Grandpa Jim.  We'll see.  

Well, I have to go now, coming soon I will talk about my reviews of all the restaurants that I have been to..

Love,  Ashton

Today, I Voted

Today, Mama, Daddy, and I did our patriotic duty and voted. Well, I am not officially able to vote, but I certainly helped Daddy out with all those initiatives. My Dad tells me of the first election that he remembers, which was the 1976 election between a Ford and some guy he tells me was a peanut farmer. Of course, Mama was only 2 years old at the time, so she really doesn't remember it. Well, the election place was really interesting, lots of people were there. Right now, Daddy doesn't seem to happy about the results, for the most part. The Ol' McDonald guy doesn't seem to be winning, while the guy named O'llama, or something like that will probably win tonight. Well, Daddy says not to worry too much, I will still be a bit too young to understand anything when he gets voted out of office. Daddy's main concern is O'llama's desire to force him to buy a certain health insurance for me..... We'll see how it turns out, it's never as bad as it seems, as it is never as good as it seems also.

Daddy tells me of the story when he ran for President of his high school back in 1984... He says that one day he was tricked into doing an impromptu (I am not sure what that means) debate with Will Dunn. Well, needless to say, he didn't do too well, and daddy wound up losing the election, even though he would eventually become a Senator anyways... The moral of the story was however, was that, after the election was over, Daddy was feeling really bad, and a little upset at his friend Will for beating him. But as Daddy was taking down his posters and stuff, he happened to run into Will. Daddy thought that Will was going to gloat (is that like a goat?) about beating him in the election. What Will did has stayed in daddy's mind for more than 24 years.... Will stuck out his hand and offered a handshake for an election well run and hopes of no hard feelings... I hope that the O'llama guy and the Ol' McDonald guy do the same thing tonight. I am learning that I am very fortunate to live in a country as great as this one, and I have to believe that, even though every four years people get into a tiffy (I learned a new word today!) about politics, we all believe in each other as Americans.. In 35 years or so when I run for president, I promise to remember this.

ASHTON NEBEKER for President 2044!!!!!

I'm One Month Old!!

Sorry that it has been awhile since I wrote. Right now I am in Kearny, where my daddy grew up. Yesterday was Halloween, and I went trick or treating up by my grandparents house. It was a lot of fun. I also took part in what they call here in Kearny " The Great Pumkin' " I was dressed up as a sweet pea... The picture next to this is my first candy that I received for Halloween. Mama and daddy wont' let me have the candy, however. They seem to think I may get a little rowdy if I eat too much about it. It's no fair, because I know for a fact that daddy last night had about 10 chocolate chip cookies, and nobody said anything. Of course, I was the only one that he told, since he can trust me totally. I am looking forward to going trick or treating again next year in Kearny. Not sure what I will be, but I am thinking of something like a physicist, or something like that.

I turned a month old a couple days ago!!! I feel so old now, I remember when I was born, the price of gas in Tucson was $3.40 per gallon. Wow! I must be good luck or something, because yesterday I saw the price for gas to be as low as $2.49! I must be good for the economy. Of course daddy wants to remind me that the weekend I was born, the Dow Jones Industrials (what's that?) was over 11000. Now he says that it is something like 9325. I want to think that this is something good, but all daddy does right now is mutter something about 401K going down the drain, or something like that. Well, he should be smart enough not to put his 401K over the sink! I should say..... Here is a picture of me on my one month birthday!

I want to give a shout out to a couple of my new girlfriends. I met Samantha a few weeks ago. Apparently mama and daddy trust her enough to leave me alone with her. I think she likes me a lot, and as for older women go, I think she is pretty cute. At this point, though, I hope she understands that I cannot commit to any one girl. Got to check out the field. Here is a picture of me and her:

On Thursday night, I also met another young lady, she is only two days younger than me. My parents and her parents went out to dinner at Shanghai. Her name is Sadie. She has quite a voice, as I heard it most of the time, and she is definitely a dream, because I slept througout most of the dinner. Sadie seems a bit emotional for me, but I really like the hot rod of a car seat that she has, so hopefully we will be able to keep in touch with each other. Her parents also seem like they are really neat people. I guess a long time ago, Sadie's mom and my mom met doing something called yoga. I asked my daddy what that was, and he said that it had something to do with a bear in Jellystone park. I think he was pulling my leg, but we'll see.

Well, this will probably be my last post before the elections on Tuesday. I hope that they let me vote on Tuesday. Daddy seems a bit disturbed to find out that Mama seem to let it not be known that she is of the other party as he would say. I love parties, mama and daddy promise to give me some good ones in the near future, so I am not sure why he is so upset that mama went to another party. Daddy said that I should vote for someone called McDonald, or something like that. Mama said she is not sure who she will vote for, but I hope it will be the guy who promises to give out free diapers and burp cloths to everyone. That is what is truly important in this world, diapers, burp cloths, and a free pacifier to anyone under a year old. Daddy says that this is something like pork barrel politics. Well, if it is, I am all for it, bacon tastes really good to me....

Talk to you soon, Ashton