November 30, 2010

Time to catch up on the events of the last few weeks.  A couple of weeks ago, I attended the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientist meeting in New Orleans (yes there is an association in the country for everything) which was my second visit to New Orleans this year.  I enjoyed the conference but it was nice to catch up with some friends I hadn't seen in a long while and partake of the great New Orleans food.  As you might be able to tell from the picture, one of the vendors rented out the Superdome and we were able to have dinner on the field while participating in some football related events - I did manage to kick a field goal from the 15 yard line (so a 25 yard kick).  This was a lot tougher than I thought it might be and I didn't have 11 screaming guys trying to tackle me at the time.  It was cool being down on the field, but it is amazing how much smaller the stadium seemed from the field rather than the stands.  The other fun thing about New Orleans (although one they probably aren't sharing in their tourist brochures) was seeing someone falling down drunk at 8 in the morning - on two separate days.  And when I say falling down drunk, I mean falling down.  It must take some skill to maintain a buzz all the way through the night.

This trip was followed up with a visit to one of our favorite Midwestern towns, Madison, WI. We spent the week of Thanksgiving with the in-laws (or in Jo's case, the family) for a week of eating, reading,  sleeping (usually rapidly followed the start of reading), and then eating some more.  We put on some serious winter weight to insulate us until March.  We did manage to brave the colder temperatures for a run each morning although as you can see we bundled ourselves up - although no snow this time around.  Jo's sisters and one of her brothers along with several of the nephews during the week so we were able to catch up on all the family news.  I also managed some major gaming time on the computer to keep me happy for another couple of weeks.  Unfortunately, it all came to an end too quickly and before we knew it we were back on the plane heading for home and work again.  One upside, was the great win by the Wisconsin football team which might be sending the old Alma Mater back to the Rose Bowl - if anyone reading this is a sportswriter (or whomever does the ranking for the BCS) be sure to rank the Badger over a Spartan and a Nut (or whatever, the Ohio State mascot is supposed to be, for that matter what exactly is a Spartan?). 

Until next time.

November 13, 2010

What a shocker this week, we woke up on Monday morning to the ground covered with snow.  Certainly didn't expect that the first week in November.  Especially as today we are enjoying balmy weather in the 60's.  Crazy week of weather, but it always nice when the snow melts immediately.

Pretty quiet week otherwise.  Jo was in town the entire week which is always a nice treat.  Other than that, we spent the week working and running together.  Unfortunately, our runs are now in the dark with the time change so have to get used to following your flashlight beam and catching the cracks in the sidewalks before you trip.  For the weekend, the final load of leaves was gathered and added to the garden for 2011 mulch.  This didn't take too long as most of the leaves fell during the previous two weeks.  Also finished trimming off all the dead flowers from the flower beds around the house.  Only remaining pre-winter chore is to gather all the outside furniture up for storage in the garage (such as the bird bath in the picture above).  And in the spirit of Monday's weather, I moved the snow blower to the front of the garage, pumped up the tires and got it ready to begin another season of snow blowing.  Which will probably be the focus of many blogs to come.

November 7, 2010

Nice to get an extra hour today since I woke up at the same time as I always do, but that is an hour earlier.  Gives me some extra time to get my posting up for the week.  The time change always makes me feel like winter is just around the corner especially as now our runs after work are in the dark.  Have to get out our reflective running vests and put batteries in our running flashlights as we look forward to 5 months of running at night.

Quiet week for us with Jo in New York for two days at a conference and my puttering around in CT as usual.  We spent the weekend watching some college football - what a game between Michigan and Illinois and Wisconsin racked up another win - and raking up leaves.  One downside from living in the middle of a forest is that you get a lot of leaves to deal with this time of year.  Probably should take the approach of simply waiting to they have all fallen and then do one massive raking, but that's just not my style.  Figure it is better to only have a few every week to move, but it does mean every week we are out raking and transporting leaves.  We try to collect a bunch for improving the garden soil.  Figure it is free mulch, but does require us to bundle them up in a big tarp and haul them up the hill to the garden.

Last night, we went to Westerly, RI with Sheri and Bruno to enjoy Senor Flacos Mexican food and a play at the Granite Theater.  Production of "In the Flight Path" which the playwright apparently couldn't figure out if it should be a comedy or a drama.  But the acting was well done, so made it was enjoyable to watch.  Only one more play this season and then another year of the Granite is done.  Certainly get our money's worth with the season tickets.

Didn't have any photo moments this week, so I figured that another picture from Jo's world tour would be worthwhile - picture is from when she was in Japan (in case that wasn't obvious).

November 2, 2010

It has been two weeks since I posted last and the truth is I'm a wee bit tired of writing a weekly message.  I have been thinking about taking a long time off since if you count the time this came out as an email message I have been posting weekly for almost 15 years or so.  And I don't live that exciting of a life so it is challenging to figure out what to write sometimes.  I do wonder if I accumulated all of the messages could I publish a book and become a celebrity.

Anyway, Election Day in the US.  I'm interested to see what happens in CT to see if you can buy a Senate seat with enough money.  I feel the best people should win regardless of their personal finances, but I also realize that is incredibly naive and it wouldn't be the first elected position to go to someone with a lot of money.  Jo and I voted this morning so we have completed our civic duty - all that is left until the next election is to pay taxes.  Onto the more personal news.

 Jo completed her circumnavigation of the globe last week.  Jo traveled to Ireland (where she celebrated her birthday at the Guinness Brewery with her team), England, Tunisia (got to see the ruins of Carthage - see photo below), Japan, Shanghai and Beijing China, and India all in two weeks.  She had a great time although came home very tired and completely messed up on time zones.  As she was in a few of the countries only one day it makes it really hard for your circadian clock to catch up.  She did get to enjoy the World Expo (that's the top photo) while in Shanghai visiting the US, China, Belgium, and one other countries pavilions (Belgium and the other one were due to their lines to get in being shorter and I can't remember the missing country's name).  China won for having the best pavilion, but since they were the host country you might expect that.  My week by comparison was pretty tame since it consisted of going to work, exercising, reading, and sleeping in one time zone.  But we can't all be jet-setters.

We spent the weekend with Jo catching up on sleep and hanging around the house since Jo wanted some down time (can't imagine why).  Naturally there were a few chores thrown in - like tackling the leaves in the yard, that will be a theme for another couple of weeks - and other miscellaneous chores.  Saturday night we enjoyed the Ivoryton Pumpkin Festival, with Sheri and Bruno, in which the town showed off the pumpkin carving skills of the local residents. Was just the right level for our energy levels since it only took about 30 minutes to walk around in enjoy the roughly 100 carved pumpkins.  This was after working our way through a beef stew and homemade breads.  It was good to catch up with everyone as it has been a while with everyone on the road lately. 

As a parting thought, I leave you with this sinkhole in Germany.  As you know I have a fascination, and quite honestly some fear, of sinkholes.  Who knows if there is one growing right underneath you today.  The fact that these massive depressions can occur out of the blue is so cool.