February 7, 2009

Well the groundhog saw his shadow and this week would certainly convince most people that we are looking at another 6 weeks of winter. While we didn't get any of the snow that hit the east coast just south of here - imagine if we were still in Philly - the Arctic blast that kept the snow south made it nice and chilly. We are certainly having a full blown winter as the temperatures continue to hover in the high 20's during the day and teens at night. Not bad except for the weekends when we do our daily run in the morning before it has warmed up. One upside has been the amazing ice crystals on our creek. These are a little different every week and all types of interesting structures are formed. Of course, that might just be the chemist in Jo and I speaking.

I also thought it would be worthwhile to provide an update on Wilson (that's our ex-snowperson). As you can now see Wilson is now trying to imitate a large snowball. Hopefully you have gained an appreciation of how talented Wilson has been as this is the third imitation that has been accomplished (Leaning Tower of Pisa, Headless Horseman, and now snowball). This is also a testament to how cold it has been in CT this year since Wilson first came to life back in December.

The work week was fairly standard with Jo having to travel to New Jersey and New York from Tuesday to Thursday. She presented at a town hall in New Jersey but she has done this so often she doesn't really get nervous any longer - whereas I would always be a wreck. I can handle up to about 50 people and then my nerves get the better of me - might that whole she's an extrovert/I'm an introvert thing. Also, maybe she is just a better speaker and more accomplished in her career. I'm going with the extro/introvert answer since then I can blame genetics and not my personal shortcomings. I had my usual mix of items to take care of at work, the most exciting of which was reviewing and selecting which exciting scientific proposals to fund for external collaborations. Always one of my favorite jobs to do.

For our free time we spent a lot of time working on the floor plans for our house redesign project. The majority of which was figuring out where to put stairs. With the small footprint we have, the stairs are turning into the major decision from which all else flows. I've learned more about stair design this week then I ever thought I would need to know. The good news is we are pretty close to agreeing on our final design. Other than that, we had planned to see Avatar yesterday, but we both got busy and never made it.

Jo is off to sunny and warmer Florida this week while I remain hunkered down in the cold. I'm still hoping for some snowfall as I haven't had the chance to use my snowblower since Christmas.