Pawley pix
skookumchick | June 30, 2008
Some of you may remember that my summer turned into a very busy travel and conference season. The Big Trip has now started - a trip to England, France and Switzerland (England and France to see friends and family and because we planned on doing this trip after I finished my dissertation but didn't have time then, 'cause I was starting a job or something, Switzerland for a conference).
We flew to London-Heathrow arriving about 6 am Monday morning, spent time finding out my English money is so old they don't accept it anymore and we didn't have any new money, and making our way to…
skookumchick | June 30, 2008This is another excerpt from our travel journal to Isle Royale. The first day is here; second day here; third day is here; fourth day is here. Photos by me, text by my husband.
Thursday May 29
Rock Harbour to Raspberry Island and Scoville Point, and return
It is the last full day on the island, and once again we had great hopes and plans for awaking early in order to go do much stuff. Atop the list was Raspberry Island, a one-mile canoe ride away over a not-very protected part of Rock Harbour. We had been foiled in our attempt of this trip by the wind on Wednesday, but were hoping that an…
skookumchick | June 23, 2008This is another excerpt from our travel journal to Isle Royale. The first day is here; second day here; third day is here. Photos by me, text by my husband.
Wednesday May 28
Rock Harbour to Lookout Louise, and return
So let me digress to the future again. [What was going on again? Oh yeah.] I write today from the point of Raspberry Island, looking out over the big lake, having just practiced Alice and my Rule #1: everything tastes better outside. The writing is better outside too - a good view, a comfortable rock, and a warm sun to heat my toes, still a bit chilled from wading in the…
skookumchick | June 22, 2008I'm finally home from my two back-to-back conferences. I confess, somewhere in the middle of the 2nd conference, I just wanted to go home. But it was good to stick it out. Of course, the lack of Internets starting Friday morning through today wasn't great, but it means I have some session blogging still to do before I leave town again on Friday for my next conference trip. In the meantime, here are some photos of a few things that caught my fancy in Cincinnati.
The house looks okay, the plants haven't died, and I have my headache back. All in time for a busy day at work tomorrow. At…
skookumchick | June 13, 2008This is another excerpt from our travel journal to Isle Royale. The first day is here; second day here. Photos by me, text by my husband.
Tuesday May 27
Rock Harbour to Mt. Franklin and return
I write this on the night it actually happened [hah], with Alice slowly peeling the tape off her feet behind me. [What can I say? My boots tend to give me blisters. You know, perhaps I should edit these more to avoid the TMI factor...] We're both beat from a long hike today, but her foot tape was a success. Sore muscles, but no blisters. [Yay!]
We slept in this morning, I think mostly out of fear…
skookumchick | June 10, 2008This is another excerpt from our travel journal to Isle Royale. The first day is here. Photos by me, text by my husband.
Monday May 26
Copper Harbour to Isle Royale
Writing is often a bit behind. [No kidding.] Today's entry starts on the day advertised, but I am under few illusions that I will finish before the light kicks out. The sun sets very late here on the extreme northwest edge of the US part of the Eastern time zone -- 9:45 pm and I'm still on natural light, streaming in through our large picture window overlooking Tobin Harbour. They definitely set up the cabins right, and also…
skookumchick | June 7, 2008Note: When we travel, we keep journals. My husband writes, and I take the photos; he skips the back of every page, and I put in photos. The next few posts from me will be from our journal of our trip to Isle Royale at the end of May. Note also that the "I"s are my husband, and the "Alice"s are me. :-)
Sunday May 25
Madison to Copper Harbour
The trip begins today, as we move from the real world into a few days of removal. We're up to getting away -- forgetting all of the issues and troubles of home. No thoughts this week of the job(s), the new job at Purdue for me (maybe) the impending…
skookumchick | June 2, 2008
We got back from Isle Royale Saturday night to a house with no toilet. Luckily enough, we have another house a mere 120 miles away, so really got home late late late Saturday night, and spent Sunday recovering. Today, shockingly, I actually got a good dent done in my research! I'll have some stories to tell over the next couple of days about our 3 days Up Nort, including a moose encounter and some wild orchid macro shots, or you can get the photographic preview here. Suffice it to say for now that it was fabulous, but cold, but fabulous - over 20 miles of hiking, and only 3 other…
skookumchick | May 27, 2008
Wonder if these will look as good when we get back? I love those early purple azaleas too, am hoping we can get some for our mudpit garden...
skookumchick | May 25, 2008
Yep, that's pretty much me - a bleeding heart.
I should be on the boat to Isle Royale by now...
skookumchick | April 30, 2008
Redbud blossoms seem so odd to me - coming straight out of the branch or the tree. But they make for a beautiful effect...
skookumchick | April 28, 2008
... despite how miserable and cold it was today. My mom said she even saw snow!
skookumchick | April 11, 2008
Today our new president, France Cordova, was officially inaugurated. I got to carry the banner for the College of Engineering - how cool is that? And I didn't even fall over.
Thanks to the police officer who took this photo, as we waited to go in the hall. More photos of the inauguration are here.
Now heading back to Illinois for the weekend. If I can finish getting myself packed, that is, and maybe beat back the regular let-down headache. But it's a beautiful day here, and will be a lovely drive.
skookumchick | April 7, 2008
We will have brussels sprouts come October, if this little sprout has anything to say about it...
skookumchick | April 6, 2008
Seeing this amaryllis bloom in my living room immediately makes me feel calmer... but actually I'm traveling now, and don't get to see it in person. *Sigh.*
skookumchick | March 29, 2008For Earth Hour, I had hoped we'd get a chance for a walk in the gloaming, but the day got away from us. My husband was just getting back from his run (alone) and I was just getting dinner started at 8 pm our time. We lit candles as it got too dark to see, and he did the crossword while I made curry.
We kept the lights off for another hour after dinner, and only reluctantly turned one back on in order to not trip over any furniture and catch the house on fire. We didn't notice any of our neighbors' lights off.
What did you do for Earth Hour?
skookumchick | March 26, 2008I've survived my spring break; now I have my first week back, while my husband tries to survive his.
Week of March 17-23Monday we moved the appliances and all the kitchen stuff back into the kitchen, packed up all my stuff from the previous week, all my husband's stuff for the forthcoming week (his spring break), all my parents' stuff for their trip to visit my sister, and a bunch of extra boxes to move to our other house. We packed up the fridge so we'd have something to eat when we got back to Indiana, and put it all into 3 cars. We put one more poly coat on the floor, cleaned, and made it…
skookumchick | March 26, 2008*Whew.* I have been slammed down by work and life, absolutely no room for blogging. Today I get a breather, and so you get an update.
Week of March 10-19
My spring break started out pretty well. Monday I had a phone conference with people I am co-authoring a paper with for the Frontiers in Education conference - the paper was due on March 24. I had lunch with my husband. I caught up on email and, because it was spring break and other people were actually taking time off (a good thing) most of the email questions didn't come back. I bought my plane ticket to the Engineering, Social…