Graduation Photos

Here are a few more of Brian's graduation photos. The actual day of campus-wide commencement was rainy and miserable outside, and the only place large enough for the ceremony is the central green on campus. Faced with the chance to sit out in the rain for several hours, we decided to stay home instead. Some of the other LLMs wanted to get together for some LLM photos (sans rain) the next week, so we went to campus to take part in those and pick up Brian's diploma. (The diploma is huge and entirely in Latin, but I think it made it back to our apartment without getting creased or stained in the crowded subway.) After taking some pictures with the robe, Brian returned it (rental). I was surprised to learn that he keeps the hat. Without further ado, here are the pictures.

Fancy architecture on this campus (I think this building might be my favorite):

On the bridge/lawn that goes over Amsterdam Ave (links the law school to the main campus block):

There were several bees in this area (they were loving the flowers), but Brian braved it for the nice backdrop.

Brian with the robe and hat by a flowering bush next to the law school (no bees here!):

Brian and another LLM student:

Here is the group of LLMs who came out for the sunny photo shoot. (One person didn't have the robe anymore.) This picture was taken on the same bridge over Amsterdam Ave shown in an earlier shot. There was a double-decker tour bus that drove by when this picture was taken, and all the tourists on the top of the bus cheered for the graduates.

Hurray! We graduated!

A foretaste

Today we went to campus for pictures and diploma. Brian wants to post about our day, so I will keep this brief. Here is just one picture of Brian in front of the law school:
Tada!

Highlights

A few highlights from the last couple days:

I have started working for the census again. Since I got promoted, I get question phone calls every so often.

The weather has been really beautiful. It is cool in the morning, warmer in the afternoon, and nice and sunny.

My fitness class is going well. We are doing a lot of running, and I can feel that my endurance has increased since the start.

This morning I went to a yoga class on the pier. It was really beautiful. Manhattan is right across the river! I knew this before, but I hadn't seen it so I hadn't realized that it was so close. It was great to be out on the water and watch the commuter ferries go back and forth. I could even see the Statue of Liberty.

I have been working on writing a little every day. Brian is still working on the last few things for his degree as well, so we are working together at home, which is nice.

April flashback

On one of the first truely lovely days of spring we had, Brian and I took a couple of the ferrets out to the park. These pics were on my cell phone, so I did not pull the pictures off the phone to my computer until quite recently. It was nice and sunny, and the ferrets seemed to really enjoy all the new sights and smells and breezes.

As you can see, we took Brussels and Rex. These two seem to be the most adventurous. We went to Lincoln Park, which is the same park where I have my fitness class. It is quite a large park though--we visited a totally different part of the park than the area where my class is held. There are a couple roads that run through the park. Here you can see we entered the park and crossed one of the roads, but we aren't that far into it yet. We did end up walking around a lot, across a field and around a small pond, before heading for home. (The row houses behind Brian's head are typical for our area.)

American Museum of Natural History

This past week, I have been working a lot for the census. Since I had off on Friday, I went to visit the AMNH. One of my cousins was visiting NYC this week on a class trip, so I got to see him as well. The AMNH is huge! I spent many hours there and still did not see everything. I did get to see the current IMAX show on the sturgeon living (for now) in the Great Lakes, which was an interesting show (a preview is available on the AMNH website).

I started in the geological/earth science area. There were many displays showing how scientists track climate change and the speed at which global warming is affecting the earth. I was happy to see a large ice core because I had never seen one before. It was preserved in a special chilled chamber.
Here is a close up of a section of the ice core. The annual layers are really clear. So cool!

Here I am with one of the huge polished rocks in the background.

Here is a stromatolite, another object I had seen in pictures but never in real life. They cut it open so people could see the layers of bacteria mats that built up to form this large stromatolite. What an interesting remnant of early life on earth.

Banded iron formation: this is a rock that was formed long ago. It records when iron oxide starts appearing on earth in large quantities, which is used as a marker of early oxygen on earth (needed to turn iron into iron oxide).

It was nice to see my cousin Nathan for a couple hours. He was visiting with his school, all the way from Tallahassee. Here we are in the main entrance hall, with one of the dinosaur skeletons (I think it is probably a cast of the original, actually).

There were many many many skeletons and stuffed animals from all over the world, past and present. I generally prefer the skeletons myself, although the landscapes they place the stuffed animals in are interesting and show the diversity of life and landscapes on the earth very effectively. This is a giant prehistoric fish. I think the glass cases in this room were about 7 feet tall, for scale.

Here is another skeleton I really liked. It is a giant prehistoric sea turtle that was suspended from the ceiling. It is about the size of a large Galapagos tortise.

There was also a section in the museum about human evolution. There were many skeleton casts, as well as artist's reconstructions of what some of these species may have looked like. This couple are Australopithecines. The number of school children standing in front of this case giggling was astounding.

This skull, discovered on the island of Flores, has been studied extensively by someone in my department since it's discovery a few year ago. I did not realize that it had made it into permanent museum displays at the large US institutions yet, but here it is. Yay for the hobbit!

These next few pictures are early representations of humans and animals from Europe. When teaching this material, I have had trouble tracking down good images of some of these artifacts. So I took pictures of many of them (many more than are pictured here) for later use. Plus, they are interesting figurines.

This carving is much larger than I had previously thought (about 4 feet tall).

This huge tree section was interesing because along with the dates painted on the rings, important historical events were also noted to add contextual information. The tree started growing around 550AD and was cut down in the 1800s.

I ended my tour of the museum by looking at a few more fossils. This is an ancient horseshoe crab, which isn't so striking in itself. (The crab is about as large as my hand.) What is unique about this fossil is the preserved trail of the crab (the lighter path on the rock).

JCF Boot Camp

I am a couple weeks into a new fitness class. The first week brought a lot of muscle soreness and complaining (just ask Brian). The second week was a lot better. We meet early in the morning, which is not my best time. It actually reminds me a little bit of Dutch dancing practice (which was also super early in the morning). The class takes place on the far side of Lincoln Park by the big track (you can see it on the google map), which is a 20 minute walk from our house. There are several sessions; I am in the Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday class at 6:45-7:45 am. I don't have any photos, but if you go to the class website, you can see some pictures. Also, if you scroll down a little bit on the main page, you can see some videos on the right hand side.
http://jcfbootcamp.com/

Ferrets with new toys

The ferrets got a small gift from the Law Revue team, and they enjoyed exploring everything.

Rex with the hammock. Once the hammock removed, the bag was a popular toy too.

Chewbacca tried to take the treat bag away for personal consumption.

Brian monitored the ferret exploration.

Rex loves all tubes, so he was an instant fan of the new one.

After all the excitement, Chewbacca needed a nap.