A different kind of Valentine

I celebrated Valentine’s Day with my new love, ‘Bea. I know, we’re not supposed to love material possessions, but I’m hoping you all won’t judge me harshly. After all, do we ever really have control over love? We only met formally a couple of weeks ago, but it was love at first sight. Now, I can’t wait to get out of bed everyday just to see Bea and head to school together. I owe Mel for our meeting, and heard about Bea for weeks before we finally got together.

(Yeah, Bea's hot.)

The timing has been a little hard, as it often is, what with the rainy season finally coming, but we’re working through it and even making long-term plans. We've planned a long ride together this summer that I'm sure will really bring us together......

We celebrated today by watching the Tour of California come through town. Missed the boat on getting into the mountains to see them on the Bonny Doon road climb, but Pete said they were able to see Levi Leipheimer chase down the pack. When we saw them roll through town, he was in the lead with Thomas Peterson close on his heels, and the rest of the break and the Peloton a little ways back. And let me tell you, the support cars have a whole lot of fancy bicycles on them.

(spectators exhibiting alternate uses for spandex)

(the leaders: LL on the right and TP on the left. You might have to click on this photo to see the bigger version. What do you mean you can't tell???)

(the rest of the break. We're told there are other famous cyclists in the bunch. Can you find them?)(the Peloton. Trust me on this one)

If you'd like more useful news about the race, check out this news post, or if you're curious about some of the hazards of Santa Cruz Mountains road, check out this youtube video....

Breaky-break

So, I managed to fly back to Seattle in the midst of the big snowstorm. In the time I lived there, I NEVER saw snow on the ground in town. Touching down definitely reminded me of winter break in Minneapolis, not in Seattle. BUT, it is awfully pretty out there with snow. BUT, it is much more of a logistical headache, so there was a stronger element of being cooped inside with cabin fever than snowy times in Minnesota.

Spent some nice time cooking, eating, watching movies, playing and catching up on sleep with the family (the usual break activities). We managed to make it in to town to see the Nutcracker ballet, which I think is the first time I've ever seen it live. The Seattle version has sets and costumes designed in part by Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are), so the production was a visual feast. Audrey is apparently getting old enough now that she kind of remembers me from last christmas, and it was fun to get to be her new favorite playmate for a day or two. Ah the fickleness of 3-year-olds. They have many best friends.

(What do you do when you've finally tired the kid out?)

(you play with her toys, of course!)

After christmas, it was off to Alaska, to see folks and ski. And it was flippin' freezing up there. I was introduced to the newest women's ski fashion craze (Bryn is always on top of these things): the puffy skirt. That's right. Like a synthetic puffy jacket, except its a skirt. I scoffed and teased and then wore Bryn's second skirt out skiing, and my rear was appreciative. Multiple days of everyone's eyelashes and hair freezing from their breath, and some nice meals catching up with all the folks. Even some new year's resolutions: finish my PhD* (there, i said it, its in print), take more risks (don't worry Mom, I don't mean the life-risking risks).

*or within a couple of months of finishing

(puffy people dressed for fireworks)

(Tomas, Jessie, Bryn and Louis contemplate the opening huck)

(dawn patrollers out. I think we were actually out at dawn, which of course means nothing up there in the winter. Note Bryn modeling the puffy skirt. Photo courtesy of Carolyn Rosner)

Prepare yourself

Ok, I promised I’d post more over break when I did some traveling. AND, you’ve probably all noticed that there has still been the same old picture of a sad crayfish. In fact, I know you’ve noticed because I’ve heard a few complaints…..

BUT, before we can move on to the exciting break stories, I can’t just skip over the eventful second half of fall quarter. I will try to go quickly however. In fact, just pretend you’re at a horse race, and read the rest as if it there is an announcer following the action.

Wendy’s wild night of trampolining and karoke, heading into thanksgiving, lots of grading, quick, made a pumpkin pie, touch football in the park. Beautiful T-day. Eat, eat, eat lots of food, Pascal’s tur-duck-en, tryptophan naps.

(the great sing-along)

(happy eaters)

(that is, I mean was, one glorious tur-duck-en)

(really, we could be playing anything. Rest assured, it was football)
(My favorite part of the meal.....)(Thomas takes his nap shift, while Dai looks like he's ready for his)

More grading, grading, lab planning, elementary school kids with bottles of colored water and fish costumes, one more job application, last lab, grading, done with TA’ing FINALLY (forever???).

Cram last minute data analysis into a week, make a poster, drive to San Francisco, join 15,000+ (I’m not kidding) geoscientists for a week of anything-we-can-slap-geo-onto-the-front-of, annual thirsty bear and lefty’s (with notable party crashers? Dai? Rychard? Beaver sauces? Unclear). One nice, calm, weekend at home. Fly to Seattle during the “let it snow” party in the Pacific Northwest.

(The old guard at lefty's, presided over by CRowe)

(Slugs and former slugs amass at Lefty's. Can you spot the non-geo "ologists"?)

(Look! Here's one! Oh wait, this is an "onomer," not even an "ologist")

(I don't know. I think I arrived to late to understand this one. How did they decide who got to be "hot dijon" and who got to be "sweet honey?")

Whew. It went by fast, sorry for so few stories……….

Bandit the Crayfish

The night before Rachel and I went to the elementary school, we brought the crayfish for the lesson back to the house. One aggressive crayfish had a tub to himself, because he didn't play well with the others. The rest were in a high-sided mop bucket.

I left them in the living room, and took the lid off of the lone crayfish's tub. I'd only put the lid on to keep the crayfish from slopping out into my car, and figured he needed air for the night. I may or may not have done this a few hours after hearing Rachel's childhood story of crayfish escapees in their car. I've got no real excuse other than blatant absentmindedness.

The next morning, as we got ready to load up, we decided to check on them. You know when you just KNOW something has happened, before you have any proof? Well, this didn't really take any ESP skills but, sure enough, the lone crayfish escaped the tub in the night and was loose in the house. Our handy information cards told us they can only live for 10 minutes out of water, so we did a quick look, found no escapee, then hoped we'd have a half a day before he started stinking.

2 hours later, after teaching, the search began in earnest. After staring behind the dishwasher, I was hopeless that we would ever find this critter. Who new there were so many dark hideyholes? While mentally preparing to break the bad news to the housemates, I heard a scratching sound. Finally, a sad, slow, dust-covered crayfish shuffled out from behind the recycling. Dust on his antennae, dust on his pinchers. He almost looked sheepish.

We named him Bandit.

November? Really???

(Going rogue?)

Somehow, October passed by in a blur of TAing, computer time and music. And election nonsense of course. I'm sure I'm not the only one who attended a halloween party with multiple Palins, a couple of husband Todds, and, oddly enough, a few pregnant Bristols (only one of whom was actually pregnant). The pumpkin was even carved in Sarah's honor, and thanks to the "voting booth of horror" I cast the only vote I will ever cast in favor of the Palin family.

(Dai expresses his opinion of my vote)

And while I can't seem to account for October with the "normal" things, there has been plenty of good, live music to make up for it. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass of course, but I've seen a bunch of cheap and great live shows at a seemingly unlikely venue called the Crepe Place. Who knew a restaurant that specializes in beer and thin pancakes stuffed with all good things would have such good taste in music and bring such unlikely groups? We Saw Sean Hayes and These United States play, and Trampled By Turtles is coming through in December.

(Hardly Strictly Bluegrass for hardly strictly few)

November holds promise for entertainment of a different kind. As part of a "communicating science" class, we are working with a local elementary school to teach short science lessons to 3-5 graders. I have the bulk of my lessons coming up, and am excited to see what will become of 30 3rd-graders let loose on a tub of cray fish. I also thought it would be it would be a bigger juxtaposition to teach 8-year olds in the morning, and 20-years in the evening, but mostly I just wish 20-years would get as excited about learning about density as 8-year olds do.

Anyway, posting will continue to be sporadic for the next couple of months, but should pick back up with the holidays and winter quarter. Traveling starts again; I just found out I'm giving a talk for a conference in New Zealand in January!

And a few more halloween pictures, just 'cuz:

(Marge and Moe. Homer was at the (you guessed it) keg.

(Two California Raisins and the lamb of God)(Somebody got a little too into character....)
(Who knew those grapevine skills from high school soccer would be so useful?)

My Personal Government Bailout

Well folks, in a time of economic uncertainty and government bailout, the folks at the most auspicious of all government science funding agencies (the agency-who-shall-not-be-named) decided to bail me out. Yes, the proposal I submitted on my birthday will be recommended for funding! WOOHOO! I'm gonna say it again. WOOHOO!

My advisor scared the living daylights out of me in my office, and then merely said, "So, we should do the happy dance," and started dancing. It took me a couple of seconds to realize what he was getting at, and in the meantime I looked at him like he was from another planet.

Needless to say, this feels SUPER validating, since this is the real deal. It kind of makes me feel like a real scientist! And maybe means this quarter will be the last time I TA??? Now I really AM counting my chickens....

Another political departure

Ok, I'm taking the slacker's route on posting, but unless you'd like photos of students firing projectiles into tubs of sand and flour, or of me staring at spreadsheets, I haven't got much to post. The quarter has started in earnest and I'm TA'ing, again. And unfortunately for you faithful readers (but good for my sanity), it is not a field-based class.

Anyway, to keep you entertained, I'm posting a link to a video, in anticipation of tonight's debate. I also recommend you check out other videos this group has made, especially "swing(er) states."

Sadly, I'll be teaching lab and will have to catch the debates later on the old interweb.....