The Big Snow

Over the weekend, much of the East Coast was blanketted in snow. While it is unfortunate that the storm caused a lot of holiday travel difficulties, it was exciting to get some snow that is sticking around for a few days. We were supposed to get a lot of snow on Saturday, but it was still pretty minor on Saturday evening when it was getting dark. Luckily for us, the slow but steady snow continued to fall all through the evening and we woke up to a significant amount of snow. By the time I ventured out Sunday late morning, the roads had been cleared. The main problem people were having was with their cars. Since just about everybody living in this city parks their cars on the street, there was a lot of digging out to be done. The sides of the roads are still a mess today, since there are always one or two cars parked in an area so the plows can't uncover the edges of the roads. Here are a few pictures of the snow on Sunday and out neighbors digging out their cars.

They don't know it yet, but soon the ferrets will be going on a cross-country adventure. For now, they are enjoying their home and hanging out together with each other and with us.

visit to Boston

I spent several days this week in the Boston area. The purpose of this trip was to visit Woods Hole for research, but it was cheaper to go to Boston and then take a seperate trip to Woods Hole than to just go to Woods Hole. There were two reasons for this. First, taking a bus to Boston from New York is relatively inexpensive. Second, I know several people in Boston who would let me stay with them free of charge. I ended up staying with Pam, a fellow FSU anthropology student who is teaching (middle school?) in Boston and recently purchased a condo. She and her cat generously let me stay at their place, which had lots of room, since she hasn't found a roommate for the condo yet.

Pam's cat (Derby-Lynne) came to visit me a lot while I was sleeping, since I was sleeping in her favorite spot. She was a very nice cat, although a loud meower.

Since I was in Boston for a couple evenings, I had a chance to visit with a few Wooster alums, who lived in the same building as Brian and me for all the years we were at school together. Shosh (on left) was in Brian's year and a fellow psychology major. Sarah (on right) was in my year and we were roommates for one semester (the other semester of that year, I was in Greece).

Woods Hole

Earlier this week, I visited the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute to work on my dissertation research. While the actual town of Woods Hole is cozy and small (kind of like Saugatuck I think, for the Holland folks), the actual research center is quite large, employing more than 800 people. There are also several smaller campuses with different names. I got a little lost on my way there (and went past it), but I asked someone, who directed me back up the road to the right turn off. The area I went was a collection of research buildings that looked rather like large houses or medium-sized inns. Here is a picture:


I had some fruitful discussions with the guy who will be taking my samples through their final step of analysis. Here he is next to the machine he will use. It is a GC (like I have used before), but it is modified into a 2D GC, which will be able to seperate the mutlitide of compounds in the samples so he can get enough space around the compounds to examine the carbon isotopes in a couple specific compounds. The good news is that he thinks there is a good amount of actual residue, so he won't have any problems having too little carbon to work with. The bad news is that the chromatographs are really complex and have a lot of peaks, so he needs to try to increase the seperation to get enough space around the compounds to get a clean read on them. I thought they were really difficult GC results, so it was gratifying to hear the same thing from someone with a lot more experience in the field.

Lastly, here is the view out of the lab's window. Yes, that is the ocean. It is really a beautiful place to work, with plenty of green space and coastal access. I was only visiting for the day, but I do kind of envy those who work here.

First Snow!

Today it snowed for the first time of the season here. It isn't a lot of snow, and I don't think it will stick around, but it is still quite exciting for a couple of northerners who lived in Florida for a while. The first picture is without flash to show how dark it was. The second picture is with flash so you can actually see the snow falling. The flakes were lovely--not little pebbles but large fluffy clumps.

And now for something completely different

Brian is often found sitting at his computer in the evening, either doing work or play. Here Eve has joined him for a bit of a snuggle.

Happy December!

December is here! Our tree is up. We still haven't seen any snow (and it has been in the 40s and above for the most part). I'm sure the real cold is still coming. Anyway, here are a few pictures of our tree to spread some cheer.

Tree with camera flash:

Tree with no flash & no room light:

This fellow should be stopping by our house sometime this weekend. I bought this ornament in Holland last year and I really like it: