We are now a family of 2 posters

Next up, 4 ferret posters?

Brussels

Brussels really enjoys playing in the tubes. Here he is poking his head out.

Surprise Party

Today, I threw a surprise party for Brian, to celebrate his new job with the FL Supreme Court. People gathered at Tom Brown Park, and then Brian arrived, completely unaware. It was a beautiful day, and it was nice to get together with friends.

Celeste and Tim brought a lovely cake with the courthouse drawn on it!

Here are some of the party guests. Along with the cake, we had lots of other good food, both baked goods and grilled food--hamburgers, hot dogs, and asparagus.

Another award for Brian

Today Brian learned that his article on Google received second place in a national article competition. The article previously received the award for the best article submitted by FSU, but he did not know that the article was then entered into a national competition. So this national award was a total suprise to him, but a welcome one. Congrats Brian!

Also, David, can you tell me how you and Rachel have two seperate contributers listed? We would like to do that also, but I can't figure it out.

Mini golf

Earlier this month, Brian and I went mini golfing with our friend Luke. Here are a couple pictures from that evening.

Ferrets say hello

Here is Eve sleeping. She tends to twist in weird ways while sleeping, but I guess she is comfortable.

Here is Chewbacca. He loved to chew on the cords for the window blinds. He will chase them when I lower them to his level and swing them around.

Brussels (bottom) and Rex, napping together in their condo. They are resting their chins on a toy they got not that long ago.


We have been expanding the number of tunnels running around our living room, and the ferrets seem to like it a lot. Here is Brussels peeking his head out. He likes to pay on his back and drag himself through the tubes with his front paws.


After playtime, everyone will settle down for a nap. Here Chewbacca, Eve, and Rex are sleeping on the hammock under the table. Brussels is probably in the condo, since that is his favorite spot.

Diss. Progress

Lately I have been putting the finishing touches on the NSF grant I am writing that will hopefully support my research. Once I get everything turned in, it is supposed to take at least 3 months to hear back, so it will be a while before I know anything.

On the research side of things, I have been preparing my samples for analysis. The first step in this process is to grind each one up by hand (see below). This is a tedious process, but I have been making progress. I have done about 50-60 thus far.

Car shopping

Brian and I went to start looking at car possibilities for when our current car breaks down (or needs expensive repairs) yesterday. We saw several nice cars in the price range we were planning on, so that was cool. Our favorite at this point is this one--a Scion tC. It has 2 doors, which is weird for me, but I am getting used to the idea. It also has 2 sunroofs, which are pretty cool. The back is a hatchback that has room for the ferrets, if we needed to take them on a drive.

More ferrets

This is how the ferret cage is set up in our apartment. There are 2 main levels, but on the far left there are three levels so that the ferrets can easily move from the top to the bottom. There are 3 doors. Since this picture was taken, we have had to double up the bars since Eve has discovered that she can squeeze herself out of the bars.

Luckily, Eve is cute enough to make up for the trouble she causes. Here she is snuggling with Brian.

Here are three of the ferrets in the hammock in their cage. L to R: Rex, Eve, Brussels

Ferrets

Here is Chewbacca in the lower level of his cage, peering out from under his blanket.

Here is Eve, causing trouble as usual. In this case, she is removing the DVDs from their shelves.

Chewbacca is showing his fighting face to Eve during play.

Cranes

During the first part of this semester, Brian organized many people at the law school to fold 1000 cranes for a sick friend. Here we are folding. Below you can see all the cranes sorted by color. We strung them into strands for presentation.

Sarasota trip

Mom and Dad came to visit us in FL this spring, although they were in Sarasota, so it was a bit of a drive for us. It was unseasonably cold, but we still had a good time. Instead of visiting the beach, we went to the aquarium. Part of our tour was a boat trip, where we saw the bay, visited a small island, and saw wildlife. Here we are on the boat.

Here are Mom and Dad on the island. Trees that put down roots too close to the shore can run into trouble, as seen here.

Here is a sea turtle, which we saw at the aquarium. They were in large tanks that we could look into, both from the tops (which were open) and from windows in the tanks' sides.

Here is a sea horse that we saw in the aquarium. We also saw some of these on the boat tour, when our guide threw a net into the bay and pulled up many creatures to examine.

This manatee was also at the aquiarium. They are very graceful, and they eat a lot of lettuce.

St. Vincent Island

In December, I went to St. Vincent Island for a school project. St. Vincent Island is right next to St. George Island, but it is a nature preserve that rarely has visitors, except for hunters at designated times and park rangers. Here I am crouched next to the base of a palm tree, whose roots have eroded out of the beach and are filled with oyster shells. There is a oyster bar nearby that has been in use for centuries, as shown by the many types of prehistoric pottery found among the shells.

Thanksgiving Snapshots

Dad, Mom, Brian, & Dave looking at fancy cars.

SC is a great place to play mini golf. Here we are at one of the many courses.

Dave started carving the turkey, but Brian took over.

We played some games when we were in SC over Thanksgiving. Brian and his brother Dave both seem to favor Pirate's Cove over other games.

Mock Dig

A couple weeks ago, some students from FSU (anthro and classics students) went to an elementary school to give a presentation about archaeology. This is a picture of all the (old) students involved. Along with the mock dig, we had a lab activity that I was in charge of, and a powerpoint presentation. We did this in three parts because we wanted to split the students up into managable groups (10 per group vs. 30 all at once).

A picture from Christmas

Inaugural Post

Following Rachel and Anne's lead, I decided I should also start a blog, primarily to share pictures easily with family, but also to post bits and pieces. This post is primarily a test . . .