Rain=napping weather

Today was another rainy day (I think the weather forcast was 99% chance of rain). Brian and I were both at work all day, but I imagine the ferrets took full advantage of the rainy weather to take some great naps. Here is a small selection of ferret pics from this week:
photo 1: Rex peaking out of his tent
photo 2: Eve napping on a freshly-washed blanket (they are softest at this point)
photo 3: a pile of ferrets napping in the fluff (Brussels in back, Rex in middle, Eve in front)

Vintage shopping

There is a really great vintage store in Tallahassee that I like to visit occasionally, just to browse through all the odds and ends. I took a trip there on Memorial Day, to look for hair clips. I didn't find any hair clips that I liked (well, later at Walmart I did), but I did see a nice coat that I am considering and a cool watch that I purchased. It is a spring-loaded bracelet type, so it is never loose. I had to go get a battery, but now that I have, I am enjoying wearing it. I am still getting used to the ticking though.

The glads

Dad asked a question about how the glads are doing in the previous post, so I thought some pictures from today might be a good update. You can see that the glads are just starting to bloom. We have several stalks of buds, one stalk of white flowers with one fully blooming, and one stalk of red and yellow flowers with two blooming. As you can see in the pictures, it has been raining a lot--at least a couple hours every day for at least the last week. The water on the flowers do make for nice pictures, but I could do without the super high humidity that comes with constant showers. It is steamy here!

Flower update

We have been getting some good rain this spring (and watering when no rain is forcast), so the flowers are looking quite nice. I realized this morning that I hadn't posted flower pics in a while, so here is a much-needed update.

These flowers are in boxes on the (tiny) front porch area. They were chosen because they have great blossoms and can tolerate shade.

Brian planted some cala lilly bulbs a while back, and the first flower appeared yesterday. They are such elegant flowers I think.

The glads are just about ready to flower, as seen by the buds that have recently appeared. I'm looking forward to seeing what colors they are. The tall bold green stems have been a nice textural contrast to the other plants in that area of the yard, but I like the splashes of color flowers add too.

These last flowers were planted on our neighbors' side of the yard several months ago. They seem to be doing really great, which is a relief since many other plants are getting a bit wilty already as the hot midday heat has arrived (I know it will get even worse later).

Plans for August

This is Brian posting from Hanneke's computer. Yesterday I accepted an offer of admission from NYU for an LLM degree starting in August. So our plans are to move to either New York or a neighboring state in the coming months, most likely August. There are still many big questions not yet answered, including where we will live and how we will finance it. We do not plan to live in NYC because ferrets are illegal in the city itself (not the state). We have friends in the area who are helping us look at where to live (it seems like everyone knows someone in NYC, and we are also looking to our extended friends to help us research). In the mean time, we will begin to sell off most of what we own to prepare for the move.

In other news, I am still sick from our trip to Orlando. I probably got what Hanneke had before we left, though for me it is manifesting differently---I have a low fever, occassional ear pains, and some disorientation that Hanneke did not have. We both had a sore throat and lots of congestion. Hanneke had a persistent cough that I haven't had. I am feeling a bit better today, though I don't know if I'll try and go to work tomorrow because I don't want to spread it to others.

We enjoyed our trip to Orlando and I'll probably post about it soon.

Back from Orlando

We are back from our short trip to Orlando. Overall, it was a good trip. We went to Universal, which was pretty cool. I really liked the Simpsons Ride, but it made Brian feel really sick. (If roller coasters make you unhappy, you should skip this ride.) Here are a few pictures from our trip. The first two are at a dinosaur-themed restaurant (fuzzy-sorry about that). The next shot is us out on a paddle boat at the resort. The last picture is at the mini golf course we played: Winter Summerland (Christmas-themed, half winter, half summer). It was a good trip. It would have been a great trip if I had not been coughing the whole time. Sadly, it seems like Brian is now coming down with this same congestion-type sickness. Wish him a speedy recovery!

mish-mash

I got a new haircut, but I have no pictures yet to post.

My conference in Atlanta was great. I had a good time and met many interesting people. My poster was well-received, and we publicized the conference I am running in October a lot.

Now that I am back in Tallahassee, I have been working on grading, calculating semester grades, and research. It is nice to be able to take it easy for a few days, after the busy busy month we have had (first Brian was gone, then I was gone, etc).

We are slowly getting a better idea of what our fall will look like, although we don't have any "for sure" answers yet. Stay tuned--I'm sure Brian will announce when he is ready.

As for now, we were thinking of going to Orlando this weekend for a short vacation, but we are reconsidering because of the swine flu (Disney seems like a good place to spread disease) and also because Brian has been feeling a little under the weather. We will see.