Hello to everyone who still reads this! You are few, but you are treasured! I haven't written for a while, but I've got some updates, so I figured I'd broadcast 'em.
Tomorrow is the first day of school for the year! I'm taking one class, Mammology, which is only on Mondays from 2-5 and Wednesday nights 7-10 (so we can go on field trips and see mammals when they are most active: at night!). I'm also taking a credit of research, which I will explain below.
But first: My New Job. George and I had both been thinking for a while that a little extra income would help a lot, mostly because George was getting very few hours at Zelda's over the summer, although that situation has changed now that students are back in town. Nonetheless, extra income is always a good thing, so I got a job at the Reference Desk at the Bucknell library. I went in to have a chat last Tuesday (right after the in-laws left) with the librarian in charge of it, and ended up staying all day (and all week) for training. My first day is also tomorrow. I'll be manning the ASK desk, where people can come up to me with any questions about their research, or how to use the library, or where the bathroom is (which is probably the most common question!). It should be pretty neat. I've already learned a lot about the library so it has been educational already.
As for my research, it's a long story... I had decided that my field work was over right before George's family came to visit because the birds were moving on, and they would be keeping me really busy. I had plenty of samples, so I was ready to call it quits. So if you remember from a few blogs ago, I was comparing the color of their under-tail feathers (the red ones) to the Corticosterone (stress hormone) levels in their tail feathers (chosen for convenience, feather size etc.) under the assumption that these feathers were grown at the same time and thus I could connect the color of one to the cort level of the other. Well, after re-reviewing my catbird papers, I discovered that while they grow both of those feathers in August, they grow their body feathers (and thus their red under-tail feathers) again in March, which destroys the link between color and stress, rendering all of my samples pretty much completely useless. I can know things about their color, and I can know things about their stress, but I can no longer connect them, and really I have nothing interesting to publish or present anymore. I have a 4-page report due to the people who gave me money this summer in about 3 weeks, and not only do I have no results to present, I now no longer have a question. GREAT! (Please read that with a hefty amount of sarcasm).
So while I thought I was done with field work, I have returned to the very early mornings, on days when I don't have work at 7:30am, to catch the last few remaining catbirds before they all migrate south for the winter.
So I've gone from field work, to in-laws, to job, to classes and back to more field work. No rest for the weary!
Oh and I forgot to mention, that I am also working in the museum again this semester in addition to grading exams for an intro to animal behavior class. It's going to be a very busy semester, but I'm looking forward to it!
Lets see if George has anything to add: a blank look. Maybe later.
Love you all! Feel free to comment and ask questions!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Camping
Hi. So here's the honest truth: George doesn't want to do the blog anymore. He is tired of it. Admittedly, I share some of those feelings, and have been doing a lot of updating through facebook recently, but I know some of you don't do facebook, and I still want to stay connected so I'll just champion this blog as my own now. Of course your messages will be relayed to George, and maybe if you make a lot of comments we can guilt him into making a post now and then...right? But seriously your comments are invaluable. If you don't comment, how do I even know it's being read, and if it isn't being read then I really should just stop. So make your little posties, and keep your part of the bargain okay?
On to news: We just returned from a two-night camping trip to Colton Point State Park on the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania! This was our first camping excursion together, and will all of our new stuff from the wedding registry, so it was kind of a tutorial to camping for us, and we learned a lot. Neither of us had been camping since childhood (I've only done backpacking since high school, so figuring out the logistics was the main part. But we did fine! We didn't really forget anything. We got to camp only to find out that the water there was not safe to drink, so we did have to go into town to get some bottled water, and some firewood. The first night there were maybe 3 other camping groups, but the second night we were the only ones in the camp ground save for the critters.
And critters there were. Both nights we were visited by a raccoon, and on the first night we discovered this while trying to sleep, and had to get up and put things in the car. He couldn't' get to the food, but was trying to open the cooler, and had gotten into our pots and pans. The second night he came a little earlier and we were still up, so I got some photos.
We took a hike to the bottom of the canyon, which was really nice. The park was pretty empty so it definitely felt like we had the place to ourselves. Saw some neat wildlife too.
So camping was great except for the sleeping part. We basically could not sleep. The sleeping bags and pads took some getting used to, and left us a little cramped in the morning. But we had a really great time anyway.
It's back to catching birds at 6am tomorrow for me! LOVE LOVE!
On to news: We just returned from a two-night camping trip to Colton Point State Park on the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania! This was our first camping excursion together, and will all of our new stuff from the wedding registry, so it was kind of a tutorial to camping for us, and we learned a lot. Neither of us had been camping since childhood (I've only done backpacking since high school, so figuring out the logistics was the main part. But we did fine! We didn't really forget anything. We got to camp only to find out that the water there was not safe to drink, so we did have to go into town to get some bottled water, and some firewood. The first night there were maybe 3 other camping groups, but the second night we were the only ones in the camp ground save for the critters.
And critters there were. Both nights we were visited by a raccoon, and on the first night we discovered this while trying to sleep, and had to get up and put things in the car. He couldn't' get to the food, but was trying to open the cooler, and had gotten into our pots and pans. The second night he came a little earlier and we were still up, so I got some photos.
We took a hike to the bottom of the canyon, which was really nice. The park was pretty empty so it definitely felt like we had the place to ourselves. Saw some neat wildlife too.
So camping was great except for the sleeping part. We basically could not sleep. The sleeping bags and pads took some getting used to, and left us a little cramped in the morning. But we had a really great time anyway.
It's back to catching birds at 6am tomorrow for me! LOVE LOVE!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Oh! Hello!
Ha Ha! I bet you thought we were so over this blog. It's not really that we're over it, it just that at least my excuse is that I've been very busy since school got out. That's right, no summer 'break' for me, instead I'm getting up at 5am most days of the week to collect data for my project.
And let me just update you with how that's going. If you remember from the spring, my project this summer was to compare stress-hormone levels in the feathers of Northern Cardinals to the brightness of their plumage. So I set out to catch cardinals by use of mist nets, use a spectrophotometer (a device that shines full spectrum and UV light onto a surface, and measures the wavelengths that are reflected back) to measure color, and then collect a feather for hormone analysis this fall.
Well, I set out to do all this in May after some final training sessions with Don to get me fully independent and a pro at getting birds out of the net (this is probably the most difficult part of it...if you think getting knots out of necklaces, or umm shoelaces is hard, try it with some even finer string, with a live bird thrashing about in it. It took some practice for sure.
So I got the hang of things, and then started things on my own, but one major thing seemed to be missing. Cardinals. Yep, I just wasn't catching any. So I quickly began to collect data on a back-up species, the Gray Catbird:
Aren't they cute? And see that little patch of rusty color under it's tail? That's the color I'm specifically focusing on. Work with these birds won't be as simple as with Cardinals, because of the mechanism behind their pigmentation, and because practically nothing is known about whether this color acts as a signal to other birds, or whether it is important for them at all. So I definitely have my work cut out for me with these guys.
So I get up at 5am to head out to my field sites, set up nets, and catch birds. It's fun, but it sure is hard to get out of bed that early. Even for a morning person! I still constantly worry that this project will lead to no interesting discovery, and that I'll somehow fail, and I'm always full of self doubt, but I've heard that this is what graduate school is all about and this is why it is so difficult.
So that's the news with me. When I'm not catching birds, I like to work on my sewing projects, clean the house, hang out with Yonce, and play the Sims 3. Hopefully George will update soon with his goings ons. I won't ruin the surprise, you'll just have to be on the edge of your seat!
And let me just update you with how that's going. If you remember from the spring, my project this summer was to compare stress-hormone levels in the feathers of Northern Cardinals to the brightness of their plumage. So I set out to catch cardinals by use of mist nets, use a spectrophotometer (a device that shines full spectrum and UV light onto a surface, and measures the wavelengths that are reflected back) to measure color, and then collect a feather for hormone analysis this fall.
Well, I set out to do all this in May after some final training sessions with Don to get me fully independent and a pro at getting birds out of the net (this is probably the most difficult part of it...if you think getting knots out of necklaces, or umm shoelaces is hard, try it with some even finer string, with a live bird thrashing about in it. It took some practice for sure.
So I got the hang of things, and then started things on my own, but one major thing seemed to be missing. Cardinals. Yep, I just wasn't catching any. So I quickly began to collect data on a back-up species, the Gray Catbird:
Aren't they cute? And see that little patch of rusty color under it's tail? That's the color I'm specifically focusing on. Work with these birds won't be as simple as with Cardinals, because of the mechanism behind their pigmentation, and because practically nothing is known about whether this color acts as a signal to other birds, or whether it is important for them at all. So I definitely have my work cut out for me with these guys.So I get up at 5am to head out to my field sites, set up nets, and catch birds. It's fun, but it sure is hard to get out of bed that early. Even for a morning person! I still constantly worry that this project will lead to no interesting discovery, and that I'll somehow fail, and I'm always full of self doubt, but I've heard that this is what graduate school is all about and this is why it is so difficult.
So that's the news with me. When I'm not catching birds, I like to work on my sewing projects, clean the house, hang out with Yonce, and play the Sims 3. Hopefully George will update soon with his goings ons. I won't ruin the surprise, you'll just have to be on the edge of your seat!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Churchy picture tour
I've been meaning to do this for quite some time. I finally remembered to bring my camera on my way to Bloomsburg and take some pics of St. Paul's for y'all to gander at.
Take a look-see at my Picasa album for a little tour of the church and the organ.
In conclusion, here is a gratuitous picture of Eileen and Yonce hanging out:
Take a look-see at my Picasa album for a little tour of the church and the organ.
In conclusion, here is a gratuitous picture of Eileen and Yonce hanging out:
Monday, April 20, 2009
Back by popular demand
Due to the overwhelming amount of fan feedback in recent days (and particularly Eileen's constant reminders), I have suddenly realized that--Egad!--I haven't posted a blog entry for two whole months! Where did March and April go, anyway??? What on earth have I been doing with all that time???
... well ... uh, let's see ... I know there's a story in here some where ...
Well--we all know that Eileen (thanks to her copious blog entries) has been entertaining herself with several rather cute, trifling little occupations, such as... capturing living, pecking, fast-moving, sharp-beaked birds with her bare hands (easy!)... skinning and stuffing monstrous carrion-devouring buzzards (piece of cake!)... and becoming a medal-holding Triathlete (child's play!)... all in the span of my own mysterious disappearance from the Blogosphere.
And indeed, I'm sure you are all wondering, "What the heck has George been doing that even remotely compares to the awesomeness of Eileen's superhuman accomplishments???" And surely, I tell you that I am ashamed. For I probably played a few too many video games, and perhaps drove to work instead of walking a few too many times when it was only slightly below freezing or only just drizzling.
But I haven't been a complete loaf. Not entirely!
I managed to survive an Episcopal Holy Week, and that's saying something. St. Paul's doesn't mess around when it comes to holy days... no cutting corners like the Methodists! It started with a Maundy Thursday service in the evening, complete with a foot-washing ceremony (from which I gracefully abstained... after all you can't ask the organist to doff his organ shoes mid service). Good Friday saw another evening service, but since there was no music planned, I stayed home and went to bed early in advance of...
EASTER VIGIL on Saturday evening. The reeeeally serious Episcopalians do this one up right by holding the service until midnight. Thankfully, our service only went from 8:30 pm to 11:00 pm. I had never seen an Easter Vigil before, and it was actually a fascinating experience, because the church starts out in complete darkness, and then a sizeable (controlled) blaze is lit in the back of the church, from which candles are gradually lit until everyone in the congregation is holding a small flame in the darkness.
After a solid hour of Old Testament readings by candlelight, I got to fire up the organ and wake everyone up at the moment of the resurrection! And then the typical hour-and-a-half service proceeded complete with communion. It was a long night, especially since I still had to drive 40 minutes back home to Lewisburg.
Easter Sunday was a good service, considering I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. I pulled out all the stops and played the happy Easter hymns good and loud. Mistakes are always best at their loudest on the organ.
With Easter behind us, I've only been getting about half attendance with the choir, so we're looking forward to Pentecost when the choir takes their summer break.
In Coffe Shop News, I have officially begun managing the front of house at Zelda's. This essentially means that I took it upon myself to start taking care of all the inventory and product ordering, because the owners were only doing it half the time anyway, and I was the only one getting stressed out every time we ran out of Espresso beans.
I will also be in charge of hiring and training when about 90% of our current staff graduates from high school and/or college next month. I'm pretty excited about this, because I've been spending all of my slow days at Zelda's learning how to make deliciously artistic lattes, really honing in on all the nuances of crafting a fine cup of coffee, and I want all the other baristas to do it too, so having the power to make everyone else do latte art will make me very happy. All of the coffee shops around here (including Zelda's) are impostors in comparison to the Seattle standard, so I'm trying to raise the bar and bring some respectability to the coffee scene in Central PA.
You will be happy to hear that all my hard work is not going unnoticed by the boss. Check out the new perks... and the 50% raise:
... well ... uh, let's see ... I know there's a story in here some where ...
Well--we all know that Eileen (thanks to her copious blog entries) has been entertaining herself with several rather cute, trifling little occupations, such as... capturing living, pecking, fast-moving, sharp-beaked birds with her bare hands (easy!)... skinning and stuffing monstrous carrion-devouring buzzards (piece of cake!)... and becoming a medal-holding Triathlete (child's play!)... all in the span of my own mysterious disappearance from the Blogosphere.
And indeed, I'm sure you are all wondering, "What the heck has George been doing that even remotely compares to the awesomeness of Eileen's superhuman accomplishments???" And surely, I tell you that I am ashamed. For I probably played a few too many video games, and perhaps drove to work instead of walking a few too many times when it was only slightly below freezing or only just drizzling.
But I haven't been a complete loaf. Not entirely!
I managed to survive an Episcopal Holy Week, and that's saying something. St. Paul's doesn't mess around when it comes to holy days... no cutting corners like the Methodists! It started with a Maundy Thursday service in the evening, complete with a foot-washing ceremony (from which I gracefully abstained... after all you can't ask the organist to doff his organ shoes mid service). Good Friday saw another evening service, but since there was no music planned, I stayed home and went to bed early in advance of...
EASTER VIGIL on Saturday evening. The reeeeally serious Episcopalians do this one up right by holding the service until midnight. Thankfully, our service only went from 8:30 pm to 11:00 pm. I had never seen an Easter Vigil before, and it was actually a fascinating experience, because the church starts out in complete darkness, and then a sizeable (controlled) blaze is lit in the back of the church, from which candles are gradually lit until everyone in the congregation is holding a small flame in the darkness.
After a solid hour of Old Testament readings by candlelight, I got to fire up the organ and wake everyone up at the moment of the resurrection! And then the typical hour-and-a-half service proceeded complete with communion. It was a long night, especially since I still had to drive 40 minutes back home to Lewisburg.
Easter Sunday was a good service, considering I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. I pulled out all the stops and played the happy Easter hymns good and loud. Mistakes are always best at their loudest on the organ.
With Easter behind us, I've only been getting about half attendance with the choir, so we're looking forward to Pentecost when the choir takes their summer break.
In Coffe Shop News, I have officially begun managing the front of house at Zelda's. This essentially means that I took it upon myself to start taking care of all the inventory and product ordering, because the owners were only doing it half the time anyway, and I was the only one getting stressed out every time we ran out of Espresso beans.
I will also be in charge of hiring and training when about 90% of our current staff graduates from high school and/or college next month. I'm pretty excited about this, because I've been spending all of my slow days at Zelda's learning how to make deliciously artistic lattes, really honing in on all the nuances of crafting a fine cup of coffee, and I want all the other baristas to do it too, so having the power to make everyone else do latte art will make me very happy. All of the coffee shops around here (including Zelda's) are impostors in comparison to the Seattle standard, so I'm trying to raise the bar and bring some respectability to the coffee scene in Central PA.
You will be happy to hear that all my hard work is not going unnoticed by the boss. Check out the new perks... and the 50% raise:
I did it!
Hi!
So yesterday was the triathlon, and I finished, without even walking, in 1 hour and 43 minutes!! It was so much fun, and pretty much all of my friends participated, so while George couldn't be there, I still had some fans. It was so much fun I'm considering doing another one before the summer is out! One of my friends in the group got photos of all of us biologists participating, and you can check out the pictures here:
http://buquest.smugmug.com/gallery/7952907_j8dML#516282558_eD4J2
Enjoy!
E
Oh and I'm number 26!
So yesterday was the triathlon, and I finished, without even walking, in 1 hour and 43 minutes!! It was so much fun, and pretty much all of my friends participated, so while George couldn't be there, I still had some fans. It was so much fun I'm considering doing another one before the summer is out! One of my friends in the group got photos of all of us biologists participating, and you can check out the pictures here:
http://buquest.smugmug.com/gallery/7952907_j8dML#516282558_eD4J2
Enjoy!
E
Oh and I'm number 26!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
T-minus 3 days
Hi. Again, sorry for not posting. George has had some news to post, but he has pretty much given up posting it seems like...I don't think he's done one since March...or maybe February. You should all comment to him, and make him write a postie or two. This whole blog thing was his idea after all...
So the Triathlon is on Sunday, and I've got some news for you. It looks like they will have streaming video of the event, so if you really want to watch, (although it will start at 6:30 am for you west coasters), you can find a link to the video at this blog, set up for the event: http://passionman.wordpress.com/
Check it out, and watch me collapse across the finish line! Seriously though, there is a high probability that I will come in last, but I guess that's okay with me...
I'll let you all know how it goes! Wish me luck!
So the Triathlon is on Sunday, and I've got some news for you. It looks like they will have streaming video of the event, so if you really want to watch, (although it will start at 6:30 am for you west coasters), you can find a link to the video at this blog, set up for the event: http://passionman.wordpress.com/
Check it out, and watch me collapse across the finish line! Seriously though, there is a high probability that I will come in last, but I guess that's okay with me...
I'll let you all know how it goes! Wish me luck!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Some Pictures LINK UPDATE!
Word is that the link I posted was bogus. Here's a better one: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=BeanAnne&target=ALBUM&id=5316177701657935089&authkey=Gv1sRgCIijh-SazsidfA&invite=CJLtr-gF&feat=email
Really enjoy it this time and let me know what you think!
Really enjoy it this time and let me know what you think!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
I can do it!
I've been training extra hard for the triathlon this week, and I've managed to have 3 milestones all in one week. On Wednesday, I biked 13 miles straight with Don, then on Thursday I swam 650 meters straight, and today I did a 5Km race. All of these distances represent the distances of each of the events in the triathlon, so knowing I can do them all individually is really great. I have yet to know whether I can do them all back to back, but I'm getting there. It took me about an hour to bike 13 miles, roughly 12 minutes to swim 650m, and 28 minutes to run 5km. Add that all up and I'm at 1h and 45 minutes. My guess is that it will take at least 2 hours though. Just thought I'd share!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Live birds!
Sorry for the lack of postage, Friends. I was on spring break all last week, and feeling pretty lazy about everything and I really didn't do anything exciting enough to report. Apparently, neither did George.
During the break I did some skinning in the Museum...my main project was to skin a vulture. The museum didn't have one in the collection, but it did have one in the freezer so I took on the job of stuffing it. It certainly was a challenge. The hardest part was breaking its wing and leg bones, which were more than 1/4 inch thick. I had to use pliers and brute strength to do it, and my hands were sore afterward. It was also very very smelly. Not because it was rotting or anything, but probably just because vultures eat rotting flesh, and thus probably smell like rotting flesh all the time. It was pretty extreme though. But here's how it turned out:
Pretty good right?
And today, I got to handle live birds for the very first time! Don and I went out to catch some birds and band them. We went to a natural area owned by the university, and set up some mist nets, which have very fine mesh (the holes are about and inch big, but the strings are very fine). The netting is set up fairly loosly so there are pockets, and when a bird flies into the net it falls in the pocket and gets caught. So how do you get the bird to fly in the net? Well the net is very hard to see because of the fine strings, so the birds can't really see it. To attract them, we can use a portable speaker connected to an ipod playing a particular bird's songs. Most male songbirds are very territorial this time of year, so if they hear an intruder on the territory, it makes them really angry and they have to come check it out. So we played the Song Sparrow song, and three song sparrows came over to check it out and we caught two of them:
By the time we had banded them and let them go, there were three Chickadees in the net to take care of! Getting birds out of the net is the most difficult part because their little feet get really caught, and the mesh can get around their wings and head, and they are often very very tangled in it. Also the birds have a tendency to bite a lot, and it actually really hurts! So those five birds were all we managed to get for the day. We almost got a robin, but it was a bit too big for the mesh, didn't get tangled and managed to get out right before I could get to it. Bummer. But we're doing this again for ornithology class Thursday morning, so we'll see what else we can get then!
During the break I did some skinning in the Museum...my main project was to skin a vulture. The museum didn't have one in the collection, but it did have one in the freezer so I took on the job of stuffing it. It certainly was a challenge. The hardest part was breaking its wing and leg bones, which were more than 1/4 inch thick. I had to use pliers and brute strength to do it, and my hands were sore afterward. It was also very very smelly. Not because it was rotting or anything, but probably just because vultures eat rotting flesh, and thus probably smell like rotting flesh all the time. It was pretty extreme though. But here's how it turned out:
Pretty good right?
And today, I got to handle live birds for the very first time! Don and I went out to catch some birds and band them. We went to a natural area owned by the university, and set up some mist nets, which have very fine mesh (the holes are about and inch big, but the strings are very fine). The netting is set up fairly loosly so there are pockets, and when a bird flies into the net it falls in the pocket and gets caught. So how do you get the bird to fly in the net? Well the net is very hard to see because of the fine strings, so the birds can't really see it. To attract them, we can use a portable speaker connected to an ipod playing a particular bird's songs. Most male songbirds are very territorial this time of year, so if they hear an intruder on the territory, it makes them really angry and they have to come check it out. So we played the Song Sparrow song, and three song sparrows came over to check it out and we caught two of them:
By the time we had banded them and let them go, there were three Chickadees in the net to take care of! Getting birds out of the net is the most difficult part because their little feet get really caught, and the mesh can get around their wings and head, and they are often very very tangled in it. Also the birds have a tendency to bite a lot, and it actually really hurts! So those five birds were all we managed to get for the day. We almost got a robin, but it was a bit too big for the mesh, didn't get tangled and managed to get out right before I could get to it. Bummer. But we're doing this again for ornithology class Thursday morning, so we'll see what else we can get then!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
We've got Fleas!
So remember that crazy grant proposal I had a week to write? Well...I got it! I just got an e-mail informing me that not only will I be awarded the $3000 stipend, but they would like to use my proposal as an example. Yay! It's nice to know that I didn't almost give myself an ulcer for nothing.
Christy leaves tomorrow morning...her visit has been entirely too short. We had a lot of fun yesterday and today finding treasures at various flea markets and antiques malls. She got me hooked on vintage pyrex. We found a complete set of primary color vintage pyrex bowls. The same ones my Grammy has, and the same ones Christy herself spent years finding one by one at flea markets. Not only did we find the whole set, but they are in absolute perfect condition. It was unbelievable. It has been wonderful to have Christy here and I'll be sad to see her go back. Maybe the impending snow storm will keep her here and we can go antiquing forever! Seriously though, we love visitors. When are you coming??
Christy leaves tomorrow morning...her visit has been entirely too short. We had a lot of fun yesterday and today finding treasures at various flea markets and antiques malls. She got me hooked on vintage pyrex. We found a complete set of primary color vintage pyrex bowls. The same ones my Grammy has, and the same ones Christy herself spent years finding one by one at flea markets. Not only did we find the whole set, but they are in absolute perfect condition. It was unbelievable. It has been wonderful to have Christy here and I'll be sad to see her go back. Maybe the impending snow storm will keep her here and we can go antiquing forever! Seriously though, we love visitors. When are you coming??
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Triathlete?
Hi everyone!
We sure are enjoying our kitty, Yonce. He's so good! We've never seen him scratch anthing, he always goes in the litter box, he doesn't spray, or destroy things, and he even likes his food. He likes it so much he eats it pretty quickly and last night at some point his dish ran out, and he came in the bedroom and woke us up. He was meowing a lot and being pesky, and we coudn't figure out what was up...until this morning when we got up and saw that his food was empty. From now on I guess we'll have to make sure it's full before bed. But he's a great cat and me makes us really happy.
I might be a crazy person, but the schools is putting on a mini triathlon and I decided to sign up for it. On April 19th I will be swimming 650m then biking 13.1mi followed by a 3.1mi run. Today I started my swim training, and boy are my arms sore! I haven't used those muscles for a while! I really needed something to motivate me to get me to the gym, and working out tends to make me a bit more stress free, so I'm feeling pretty good about things.
This weekend my aunt Christy from the D.C area is coming to visit and we're totally excited!! Our second guest! And our first overnight guest! Yay!
We'll, it's only the middle of the day, and I've got some bird skinning to do... Have a great day everybody!!
We sure are enjoying our kitty, Yonce. He's so good! We've never seen him scratch anthing, he always goes in the litter box, he doesn't spray, or destroy things, and he even likes his food. He likes it so much he eats it pretty quickly and last night at some point his dish ran out, and he came in the bedroom and woke us up. He was meowing a lot and being pesky, and we coudn't figure out what was up...until this morning when we got up and saw that his food was empty. From now on I guess we'll have to make sure it's full before bed. But he's a great cat and me makes us really happy.
I might be a crazy person, but the schools is putting on a mini triathlon and I decided to sign up for it. On April 19th I will be swimming 650m then biking 13.1mi followed by a 3.1mi run. Today I started my swim training, and boy are my arms sore! I haven't used those muscles for a while! I really needed something to motivate me to get me to the gym, and working out tends to make me a bit more stress free, so I'm feeling pretty good about things.
This weekend my aunt Christy from the D.C area is coming to visit and we're totally excited!! Our second guest! And our first overnight guest! Yay!
We'll, it's only the middle of the day, and I've got some bird skinning to do... Have a great day everybody!!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
A rescue
Meet the newest member of our family: Yonce Marley Kennedy Woodward!
Yonce, (we pronounce it Yon-cee) comes to us from the Lycoming County SPCA in Williamsport. He showed up there in December covered with scabs from all his fleas, and as you can see from his mug shot, he was also missing part of his ear. Well they fixed him up, started him on flea medication, and today he has a nice smooth coat, and his ear is healed. He developed a pretty bad case of upper respiratory infection because of all the stress though, but he's mostly over that too. So Yonce comes to us updated on all his shots, with a micro chip, and a really great name. He's really mellow, loves to be petted, and chirps at you when you talk to him. He's pretty great. We'll post more pictures soon!
Yonce, (we pronounce it Yon-cee) comes to us from the Lycoming County SPCA in Williamsport. He showed up there in December covered with scabs from all his fleas, and as you can see from his mug shot, he was also missing part of his ear. Well they fixed him up, started him on flea medication, and today he has a nice smooth coat, and his ear is healed. He developed a pretty bad case of upper respiratory infection because of all the stress though, but he's mostly over that too. So Yonce comes to us updated on all his shots, with a micro chip, and a really great name. He's really mellow, loves to be petted, and chirps at you when you talk to him. He's pretty great. We'll post more pictures soon!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Hey Y'all!
Today I completed my 24th trip around the sun! Woo! It was a pretty good trip, but let's hope the 25th is even better. I went to school like normal today, but then right before my ornithology class, I looked out the window and saw 3 White-winged Crossbill right outside in the cedar tree! I had never seen a crossbill before, so I popped into class, got a couple of my classmates to come look (one of which had his binoculars with him. PERFECT!) and we had a look. I asked Don my teacher about it and he said they are pretty rare here, but can visit in the winter. It was a wonderful birthday treat from the birdies!
Then Georgie came to pick me up and he had a birthday card and in it, it said IOU one kitty cat. So pretty soon here we're going to go the shelter and get us a kitty. So today we went to the new Petsmart in Selinsgrove and picked up some toys, litter and supplies. It's very exciting! We're going to have a new member of the family!
Tonight George is taking me to the chinese buffet because I told him if he took me anywhere too expensive that I'd just feel guilty the whole night about how much it cost and I wouldn't be able to enjoy it. So this way, I can indulge in some deliciously terrible food, and not feel too much guilt.
In other news, that George never got around to posting, he officially got his accompanying job at Bucknell! He'll be working 5+ hours per week at $25 bucks an hour with the opera students now through sometime in March. It's temporary, but now that he's got his foot in the door, maybe they'll think of him next time they need somebody. Way to go George!
My research proposal is coming along. I turned in a crappy draft to Don last night and he said it was actually pretty good, but obviously I still have some work to do. But that's a major step out of the way. I think I can pull it off now. I still have a test on Friday to study for and Stats homework to keep up on, but a bit of the pressure has been lifted.
Tomorrow for my Ornithology lab, we're going on our first field trip and I'm pretty excited to get out there and figure out where all the birds are. It will be focused on water birds, so ducks and geese mostly.
That's all the updates for now! Thanks to everybody who sent things, or wrote notes! It's always wonderful to hear from you!
Today I completed my 24th trip around the sun! Woo! It was a pretty good trip, but let's hope the 25th is even better. I went to school like normal today, but then right before my ornithology class, I looked out the window and saw 3 White-winged Crossbill right outside in the cedar tree! I had never seen a crossbill before, so I popped into class, got a couple of my classmates to come look (one of which had his binoculars with him. PERFECT!) and we had a look. I asked Don my teacher about it and he said they are pretty rare here, but can visit in the winter. It was a wonderful birthday treat from the birdies!
Then Georgie came to pick me up and he had a birthday card and in it, it said IOU one kitty cat. So pretty soon here we're going to go the shelter and get us a kitty. So today we went to the new Petsmart in Selinsgrove and picked up some toys, litter and supplies. It's very exciting! We're going to have a new member of the family!
Tonight George is taking me to the chinese buffet because I told him if he took me anywhere too expensive that I'd just feel guilty the whole night about how much it cost and I wouldn't be able to enjoy it. So this way, I can indulge in some deliciously terrible food, and not feel too much guilt.
In other news, that George never got around to posting, he officially got his accompanying job at Bucknell! He'll be working 5+ hours per week at $25 bucks an hour with the opera students now through sometime in March. It's temporary, but now that he's got his foot in the door, maybe they'll think of him next time they need somebody. Way to go George!
My research proposal is coming along. I turned in a crappy draft to Don last night and he said it was actually pretty good, but obviously I still have some work to do. But that's a major step out of the way. I think I can pull it off now. I still have a test on Friday to study for and Stats homework to keep up on, but a bit of the pressure has been lifted.
Tomorrow for my Ornithology lab, we're going on our first field trip and I'm pretty excited to get out there and figure out where all the birds are. It will be focused on water birds, so ducks and geese mostly.
That's all the updates for now! Thanks to everybody who sent things, or wrote notes! It's always wonderful to hear from you!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Big news in Bloomsburg
As promised, we nabbed a clipping of the article from last week's Press Enterprise newspaper, which is a weekly publication that covers the obvious dearth of news in Bloomsburg, Danville, and the surrounding area.
Take a gander and you'll see what I mean.
I think I came across rather pretentious with that pained half smile, and Bill just looks far too happy to be leaving. Truth is, they picked the shot where I was between smiles and/or about to sneeze, and Bill was in hysterics because he was so excited to be retiring.
Bill was, in fact, extremely happy to be leaving, so there might be a tad too much truth to this photo. I just hope I'm not actually a pretentious snob.
To give you a reference point on the scope and sophistication of the Press Enterprise, I've included a scan of the back of the above clipping... which appears to be a classifieds of a revealing sort. Note the first and second full items. I kid you not.
Stress
So I'm through 4 weeks of school, and so far things have been very manageable. No major tests, papers, projects of any sort to really worry about yet. Until yesterday. Yesterday I met with Don, and he informed me that if I would like a paycheck this summer (in the form of a stipend for my research) that applications and proposals are due the 16th. That's a week from Monday. Since I definitely would like to get paid this summer (my stipend for doing museum work does not pay in the summer) I need to work like mad this week to really solidify my project, what exactly I'm going to be doing this summer, and pitch it (in the form of a written proposal) to a panel of faculty who hopefully will find it decent enough to fund. It's very much like the proposals I wrote at UPS, except when I wrote those, I had months to do my research, write, and edit. This time I have a week.
So this coming week I need to write that proposal, I also have my first ornithology exam on Friday, I'm also presenting my lizard research to my lab group on Friday (so I need to prepare a little bit there), and my first sewing class is Thursday night. OH, I didn't tell you: I signed up for a sewing class!
So I feel a little bit like I'm complaining too much, but all these stressful things just landed on me yesterday and now I'm freaking out just a little. I should probably bake some cookies or something to get me through this.
And I feel like I need to make a picture post....I'll work on it in all my spare time...Ha!
So this coming week I need to write that proposal, I also have my first ornithology exam on Friday, I'm also presenting my lizard research to my lab group on Friday (so I need to prepare a little bit there), and my first sewing class is Thursday night. OH, I didn't tell you: I signed up for a sewing class!
So I feel a little bit like I'm complaining too much, but all these stressful things just landed on me yesterday and now I'm freaking out just a little. I should probably bake some cookies or something to get me through this.
And I feel like I need to make a picture post....I'll work on it in all my spare time...Ha!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Tidbits
Hello Friends!
Been a little while, so I thought I'd update things here. We managed to avoid a parking ticket this week, thanks to our google calendar which now sends me an e-mail every Sunday afternoon to remind me to move the car. Very handy.
I have my first test of sorts tomorrow in my ornithology lab. I haven't had an exam in almost two years, so I hope I know what I'm doing, but I've been very busy studying all of the bird orders, internal and external anatomy, feathers, and bones. George has been helping me study the orders with my flashcards, and he's even picked up on some of them. Now when we see ducks at the creek he makes sure to point out that they are in fact Anseriformes. I have also been studying with a girl I met in class, Sara. She sat by me the first day of class, and now I'd even say we're beginning to be friends. She came over on Sunday night to study, and she was our very first house guest. It's great to finally know a few faces around here.
On Monday, while we were cooking dinner, George decided to fiddle some with the timer knobs on the oven, because if they exist, he must fiddle with them. He managed to do two things during his fiddling. First he somehow set the timer, and it went off at a later point in the evening. Not really what we were expecting. Second he some how managed to turn off the oven part. What I mean by this is, when we went to try to turn on the oven, simply nothing happened. Neither the broiler or the lower element would function. We thought he broke the oven, until today, he decided to fiddle again, and got it all to function again. I'm not really sure what the point of that certain knob is, but at least our oven is functional still. I was worried there that I wasn't going to be able to bake my birthday cake.
In other news, my wonderful mother took on the task of sewing curtains for our windows. They arrived a couple of days ago and they look really great. It is a huge improvement over sheets on the windows, and now they neighbors can't stare at us while we eat dinner. (We also don't have to see our neighbor while changing her shirt...this we did see by accident) Okay I just took pictures, but George's camera won't load onto my computer, so I'm going to have to make him add them later. Be sure to check back for an update!
This coming Sunday, George is playing solo for the first time at church. Everyone there is so excited about him, they even put a story in the news paper. He's at choir practice right now, and one of the members was going to bring him a clipping of it, so you'll also have to check back to see that. We'll scan it and post it up here.
We absolutely cannot wait for things to thaw out around here. We've had maybe one or two days above freezing since we've been here, and it's starting to get a little old. It would be really nice to walk outside with out being bundled, and to not have to risk my neck on the walk to school because of the ice all over the sidewalk. Apparently Phil saw his shadow on Monday though, so it looks like we'll have 6 more weeks of winter.
Anywho, much love to you all!!
Been a little while, so I thought I'd update things here. We managed to avoid a parking ticket this week, thanks to our google calendar which now sends me an e-mail every Sunday afternoon to remind me to move the car. Very handy.
I have my first test of sorts tomorrow in my ornithology lab. I haven't had an exam in almost two years, so I hope I know what I'm doing, but I've been very busy studying all of the bird orders, internal and external anatomy, feathers, and bones. George has been helping me study the orders with my flashcards, and he's even picked up on some of them. Now when we see ducks at the creek he makes sure to point out that they are in fact Anseriformes. I have also been studying with a girl I met in class, Sara. She sat by me the first day of class, and now I'd even say we're beginning to be friends. She came over on Sunday night to study, and she was our very first house guest. It's great to finally know a few faces around here.
On Monday, while we were cooking dinner, George decided to fiddle some with the timer knobs on the oven, because if they exist, he must fiddle with them. He managed to do two things during his fiddling. First he somehow set the timer, and it went off at a later point in the evening. Not really what we were expecting. Second he some how managed to turn off the oven part. What I mean by this is, when we went to try to turn on the oven, simply nothing happened. Neither the broiler or the lower element would function. We thought he broke the oven, until today, he decided to fiddle again, and got it all to function again. I'm not really sure what the point of that certain knob is, but at least our oven is functional still. I was worried there that I wasn't going to be able to bake my birthday cake.
In other news, my wonderful mother took on the task of sewing curtains for our windows. They arrived a couple of days ago and they look really great. It is a huge improvement over sheets on the windows, and now they neighbors can't stare at us while we eat dinner. (We also don't have to see our neighbor while changing her shirt...this we did see by accident) Okay I just took pictures, but George's camera won't load onto my computer, so I'm going to have to make him add them later. Be sure to check back for an update!
This coming Sunday, George is playing solo for the first time at church. Everyone there is so excited about him, they even put a story in the news paper. He's at choir practice right now, and one of the members was going to bring him a clipping of it, so you'll also have to check back to see that. We'll scan it and post it up here.
We absolutely cannot wait for things to thaw out around here. We've had maybe one or two days above freezing since we've been here, and it's starting to get a little old. It would be really nice to walk outside with out being bundled, and to not have to risk my neck on the walk to school because of the ice all over the sidewalk. Apparently Phil saw his shadow on Monday though, so it looks like we'll have 6 more weeks of winter.
Anywho, much love to you all!!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Another parking ticket
Eileen's giving me a hard time about watching crappy made-for-TV movies based on crappy supermarket novels, when instead I could be spending that time updating the blog...... so here I am!
In my defense, I did read the book. But maybe I should have been blogging then, too. It was a terrible waste of time.
Some new and exciting things have happened over the past few days. The best of all being that we got another parking ticket! Still haven't gotten in sync with that incredibly lame rule about no parking on Mondays 7 - Noon so that the Lewisburg police have something to do while the plowers are not out plowing. But it feels good knowing that our hard earned parking violation dollars are going to a good cause. A few more weeks like this, and Lewisburg will be in the market for a shiny new PlowKing 5000 for the parade collection.
I interviewed and gave a little audition for the Bucknell piano faculty today, in hopes of scoring some accompanying gigs, and I think it went pretty well. Although you never can tell with those piano prof types. They always have a good poker face. In any case, it sounds like they might want me to work with some of their opera singers, so here's hoping I don't get stuck with any warbling window-breakers.
Still waiting to start bringing down the house at St. Paul's Episcopal. My official first day will be the second Sunday of February, but I will be accompanying the choir on one piece this coming Sunday... just for fun I guess.
Eileen is still feeling a bit a-flap in the breeze since she's still not settled on a research project, but there were some promising conversations with Dr. Dearborn today, so we're looking forward to a new tack soon. The upside is that she likes to watch a lot of horribly entertaining TV when she's a-flappin, and I'm always happy to partake. I don't know what bad TV shows are going to do without us when things pick up again...
Well that's about all for now, since I have to wake up at 5:30 am open at Zelda's. In fact, it must be that time, since I can hear Eileen's skull resonating with her electric toothbrush in the bathroom.
In my defense, I did read the book. But maybe I should have been blogging then, too. It was a terrible waste of time.
Some new and exciting things have happened over the past few days. The best of all being that we got another parking ticket! Still haven't gotten in sync with that incredibly lame rule about no parking on Mondays 7 - Noon so that the Lewisburg police have something to do while the plowers are not out plowing. But it feels good knowing that our hard earned parking violation dollars are going to a good cause. A few more weeks like this, and Lewisburg will be in the market for a shiny new PlowKing 5000 for the parade collection.
I interviewed and gave a little audition for the Bucknell piano faculty today, in hopes of scoring some accompanying gigs, and I think it went pretty well. Although you never can tell with those piano prof types. They always have a good poker face. In any case, it sounds like they might want me to work with some of their opera singers, so here's hoping I don't get stuck with any warbling window-breakers.
Still waiting to start bringing down the house at St. Paul's Episcopal. My official first day will be the second Sunday of February, but I will be accompanying the choir on one piece this coming Sunday... just for fun I guess.
Eileen is still feeling a bit a-flap in the breeze since she's still not settled on a research project, but there were some promising conversations with Dr. Dearborn today, so we're looking forward to a new tack soon. The upside is that she likes to watch a lot of horribly entertaining TV when she's a-flappin, and I'm always happy to partake. I don't know what bad TV shows are going to do without us when things pick up again...
Well that's about all for now, since I have to wake up at 5:30 am open at Zelda's. In fact, it must be that time, since I can hear Eileen's skull resonating with her electric toothbrush in the bathroom.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
...aaaaand we're back!
Hi folks,
Sorry about the lack of posting lately. We just got connected to the internet at home, so posting before now has been a little difficult. Since so much has been happening, I'll just give you some tidbits here. Some highlights if you will. If you want to know that details about any of it, just make a little postie, or shoot me an e-mail, and I'll spill it all. (Ha! That will get you all to post a little more!) :)
I've been in school now for a week. I'm taking Biology657, Ornithology, taught by my advisor, Don Dearborn, who's website you can find a link to on the right side of this blog. And also a Statistics class, that focuses on biological applications. On the first day of stats, I found out that it had a pre-requisite, and I have never taken a stats course, so this class will be a bit of a challenge. The professor is aware of my situation though, and I've already been in to see her several times to get help, so I'm going to be working extra hard to do well. And with only one other class to worry about it should be okay. Ornithology on the other hand is totally manageable, and really fun. It's always fun to learn about your favorite thing, with people who also love it too.
My job at school, to earn my stipend, is to manage the small museum collection at school. This means that my job will be to skin my way through the freezer full of birds, and make museum specimens of them. For those who don't know, I learned how to do this at UPS, when I volunteered at the Slater museum. Yesterday I skinned my first bird here, a Northern Flicker, and I made a spread of one of its wings, since the museum didn't have any, and they make great teaching tools. This particular bird was molting some of its primaries, so it make an especially good spread wing. Tomorrow I skin a Junco.
Since we only live about a mile away from campus, I've been walking to school every day, and its been about 15 degrees and slightly breezy most days. Last week it was 5 degrees, and I nearly froze my face off. I really have to bundle up to get there without becoming a Popsicle. And bringing some tea along the way really helps to thaw my face.
Georgie has been keeping busy too. Last week he decided to visit the local coffee shops and see about getting some work. The first one he walked into, Zelda's, turned out to be in need of some help, and pretty much offered him a job on the spot. He started on Monday, and now is learning how to make coffee drinks for the thirsty citizens of Lewisburg. Today I went in to visit him while he was working, and he looked really cute in his apron! I couldn't help but find him adorable.
He's also working very closely with the current organist at St. Paul's Episcopal who is retiring in a week or two, to make the transition go smoothly. George will be playing a piece or two this Sunday at the service. This job will be a challenge for him, but it will help him grow as a musician, and hopefully help him figure out a career path to take.
I'm still really homesick. I don't love it here....not yet. It's cold and all the trees look dead, because it's the dead of winter, and there are no birds out because it's so cold, and I don't have any friends. Being married makes me very different from most students, and being a grad student makes me very different from most students, so it has been pretty hard to connect with anybody so far. They all have friends already, and have things in common with people, and its going to be hard to connect too. I'm trying though. I really want a friend. At least I have Georgie though! I'd be in an even worse state without him! But seriously, I've been a little low, and the adjustment has been hard.
I'm sure there are more things to tell you, like how our neighbor in the unit next door, practices his drums every day starting exactly at 3:00 for about an hour and a half, or how we made a day of going to Ikea to get a dining table and chairs, or that our apartment is really devoid of house plants, or how we discovered that Wal-Mart actually has really low prices, but we feel guilty about having shopped there, but this post is already really long, so that's all you get for now.
But now that we have the interent, we should be more frequent with the posting.
I love you all and miss all of you dearly!!
Sorry about the lack of posting lately. We just got connected to the internet at home, so posting before now has been a little difficult. Since so much has been happening, I'll just give you some tidbits here. Some highlights if you will. If you want to know that details about any of it, just make a little postie, or shoot me an e-mail, and I'll spill it all. (Ha! That will get you all to post a little more!) :)
I've been in school now for a week. I'm taking Biology657, Ornithology, taught by my advisor, Don Dearborn, who's website you can find a link to on the right side of this blog. And also a Statistics class, that focuses on biological applications. On the first day of stats, I found out that it had a pre-requisite, and I have never taken a stats course, so this class will be a bit of a challenge. The professor is aware of my situation though, and I've already been in to see her several times to get help, so I'm going to be working extra hard to do well. And with only one other class to worry about it should be okay. Ornithology on the other hand is totally manageable, and really fun. It's always fun to learn about your favorite thing, with people who also love it too.
My job at school, to earn my stipend, is to manage the small museum collection at school. This means that my job will be to skin my way through the freezer full of birds, and make museum specimens of them. For those who don't know, I learned how to do this at UPS, when I volunteered at the Slater museum. Yesterday I skinned my first bird here, a Northern Flicker, and I made a spread of one of its wings, since the museum didn't have any, and they make great teaching tools. This particular bird was molting some of its primaries, so it make an especially good spread wing. Tomorrow I skin a Junco.
Since we only live about a mile away from campus, I've been walking to school every day, and its been about 15 degrees and slightly breezy most days. Last week it was 5 degrees, and I nearly froze my face off. I really have to bundle up to get there without becoming a Popsicle. And bringing some tea along the way really helps to thaw my face.
Georgie has been keeping busy too. Last week he decided to visit the local coffee shops and see about getting some work. The first one he walked into, Zelda's, turned out to be in need of some help, and pretty much offered him a job on the spot. He started on Monday, and now is learning how to make coffee drinks for the thirsty citizens of Lewisburg. Today I went in to visit him while he was working, and he looked really cute in his apron! I couldn't help but find him adorable.
He's also working very closely with the current organist at St. Paul's Episcopal who is retiring in a week or two, to make the transition go smoothly. George will be playing a piece or two this Sunday at the service. This job will be a challenge for him, but it will help him grow as a musician, and hopefully help him figure out a career path to take.
I'm still really homesick. I don't love it here....not yet. It's cold and all the trees look dead, because it's the dead of winter, and there are no birds out because it's so cold, and I don't have any friends. Being married makes me very different from most students, and being a grad student makes me very different from most students, so it has been pretty hard to connect with anybody so far. They all have friends already, and have things in common with people, and its going to be hard to connect too. I'm trying though. I really want a friend. At least I have Georgie though! I'd be in an even worse state without him! But seriously, I've been a little low, and the adjustment has been hard.
I'm sure there are more things to tell you, like how our neighbor in the unit next door, practices his drums every day starting exactly at 3:00 for about an hour and a half, or how we made a day of going to Ikea to get a dining table and chairs, or that our apartment is really devoid of house plants, or how we discovered that Wal-Mart actually has really low prices, but we feel guilty about having shopped there, but this post is already really long, so that's all you get for now.
But now that we have the interent, we should be more frequent with the posting.
I love you all and miss all of you dearly!!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Sludge alert, and a parking ticket
We knew we were getting a "smoked-in" apartment going into this. Professor Dearborn's scouting mission a few months back resulted in a photo of the bedroom complete with a carton of Marlboros on the floor.
After some haggling with the realtor, we made sure that new carpet and a full paint job would be a part of the deal. And they did a great job, because you can hardly tell ours used to be a smoking unit. Expectations were actually exceeded--the place smells like... fresh paint and new carpet... and only a little musty smokeyness in the coat closet.
For some strange reason, the realtor who sat down with us for the lease signing tried to convince us that there was never a smoker in the unit. Eileen and I just gave each other sideways looks when she said that. Apparently she was unaware that we had photographic evidence. And indeed, there is almost no evidence of a smoker. We might have never known, but for 1. Don's scouting mission... and 2. when Eileen decided to give the windows a thorough scrub down. Check out the before and after comparison of the tar build-up on the bedroom windows.
In Exhibit A, if you get your ear in close enough, you can almost hear the sludge oozing down the glass. And in Exhibit B, you can almost hear the crisp little "Ding!" of cleanliness. Good thing Eileen notices these things, because you can probably get second-hand smoke from this kind of tar cake.
On an unfortunate note, we got a $15 parking violation in front of the house today. Somehow, we didn't notice the "No parking Monday 7 - Noon" sign right outside our front door. Apparently, the parking spaces need to be plowed clear of snow every week at this time. These things simply don't happen in Washington. I guess the police officer didn't sympathize while he jotted down our Washington plate number, pried up the ice-encased windshield wiper, and placed the pink slip neatly under the blanket of snow on the windshield.
That just ain't right!
After some haggling with the realtor, we made sure that new carpet and a full paint job would be a part of the deal. And they did a great job, because you can hardly tell ours used to be a smoking unit. Expectations were actually exceeded--the place smells like... fresh paint and new carpet... and only a little musty smokeyness in the coat closet.
For some strange reason, the realtor who sat down with us for the lease signing tried to convince us that there was never a smoker in the unit. Eileen and I just gave each other sideways looks when she said that. Apparently she was unaware that we had photographic evidence. And indeed, there is almost no evidence of a smoker. We might have never known, but for 1. Don's scouting mission... and 2. when Eileen decided to give the windows a thorough scrub down. Check out the before and after comparison of the tar build-up on the bedroom windows.
In Exhibit A, if you get your ear in close enough, you can almost hear the sludge oozing down the glass. And in Exhibit B, you can almost hear the crisp little "Ding!" of cleanliness. Good thing Eileen notices these things, because you can probably get second-hand smoke from this kind of tar cake.
On an unfortunate note, we got a $15 parking violation in front of the house today. Somehow, we didn't notice the "No parking Monday 7 - Noon" sign right outside our front door. Apparently, the parking spaces need to be plowed clear of snow every week at this time. These things simply don't happen in Washington. I guess the police officer didn't sympathize while he jotted down our Washington plate number, pried up the ice-encased windshield wiper, and placed the pink slip neatly under the blanket of snow on the windshield.
That just ain't right!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Where the heck is everyone?
So, as you can probably imagine, George and I have done some shopping in the last few days. There were lots of big and small things that we needed for the new place. There's a mall in Selinsgrove (8mi south of Lewisburg) with some weird department stores that we've never heard of like Bon Ton and Boscov's, and also a shopping complex with a Best Buy, Target, Michael's, among others. We've been to the complex with the Target twice now, and to the mall for the first time today, but both times we've noticed that absolutely nobody is at any of them. You'd think that noon-time on a Saturday might be a fairly busy shopping time, but it was pretty deserted. At both shopping areas there are HUGE parking lots, and it all seems really unnecessary because they'll never need it. Where are all the people? We concluded that they huge lots are for the big piles of snow created by all the plowing. And there are tons of plows. There was one doing the lot by Target, and there was probably less than an inch collected since the last time he went through. The plows mean business around here.
We're also starting to realize how foreign we must look to some people. Today, George was wearing his softshell coat, and his new waterproof Keen shoes, and I had on my fancy rain coat, and my hiking boots...These are things we normally wear, and in Seattle, nobody would have blinked at it.
Well, when we were in the RadioShack today, the clerk asked George "Where did you get those shoes?" George replied "Oh, at REI", and the clerk gave us a blank look and said "REI?" Yeah...he had never heard of it. So we told him what REI was and that we just moved here from Seattle, and he was definitely in awe of us...kind of like he'd never seen anything like us before. He probably hadn't.
That's the post for now, George is working on one too...with some pictures! I start school on Wednesday, and have yet to get to know my way around campus, but I'm hoping to meet up with Don soon, for a little tour... I'll let you know how it all goes. Oh and we don't have the Internet at home until Friday (we're at a cafe right now) So the posting and e-mails might be minimal until then.
I miss all of your faces!!!
We're also starting to realize how foreign we must look to some people. Today, George was wearing his softshell coat, and his new waterproof Keen shoes, and I had on my fancy rain coat, and my hiking boots...These are things we normally wear, and in Seattle, nobody would have blinked at it.
Well, when we were in the RadioShack today, the clerk asked George "Where did you get those shoes?" George replied "Oh, at REI", and the clerk gave us a blank look and said "REI?" Yeah...he had never heard of it. So we told him what REI was and that we just moved here from Seattle, and he was definitely in awe of us...kind of like he'd never seen anything like us before. He probably hadn't.
That's the post for now, George is working on one too...with some pictures! I start school on Wednesday, and have yet to get to know my way around campus, but I'm hoping to meet up with Don soon, for a little tour... I'll let you know how it all goes. Oh and we don't have the Internet at home until Friday (we're at a cafe right now) So the posting and e-mails might be minimal until then.
I miss all of your faces!!!
Settling right in
So, we made it to Lewisburg in one piece, and most of our stuff arrived in one piece. The only casualties of the move were a $4 candle plate and a chest of drawers... both from Ikea. The chest of drawers was salvaged with some expert duct taping. Unfortunately, the candle plate was too far gone, even for the powers of duct tape.
Our moving truck driver, Rod, tried to be polite about it, but I saved him the trouble by admitting that it's our own fault for buying cheap stuff.
All in all, not bad on the damage front.
Now, the nesting begins. We're making slow but steady progress unpacking. Rooms are being assembled on a priority basis. The bedroom is looking nice and cozy, thanks to those snazzy sheets from our wedding registry.
The "office" is now functional. Here you can see Eileen working hard on a Sudoku puzzle.
As you can see, the living room is low on the priority list.
And before I sign off here at the Cherry Alley Cafe (since the apartment is offline until next Friday), a shot of Eileen on the porch of the new abode, and a view of the street (and a guy with a serious snow blower) from our living room. Here comes the snow!
Our moving truck driver, Rod, tried to be polite about it, but I saved him the trouble by admitting that it's our own fault for buying cheap stuff.
All in all, not bad on the damage front.
Now, the nesting begins. We're making slow but steady progress unpacking. Rooms are being assembled on a priority basis. The bedroom is looking nice and cozy, thanks to those snazzy sheets from our wedding registry.
The "office" is now functional. Here you can see Eileen working hard on a Sudoku puzzle.
As you can see, the living room is low on the priority list.
And before I sign off here at the Cherry Alley Cafe (since the apartment is offline until next Friday), a shot of Eileen on the porch of the new abode, and a view of the street (and a guy with a serious snow blower) from our living room. Here comes the snow!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
The new place (as seen by George)
Eileen is really working me over about neglecting the blog (and of course, she's right), so I'm making an appearance to give my take on our first look at Lewisburg.
I was even more hare-brained than usual getting ready to hit the road on Friday, since it felt like there was an infinite and ever growing number of things to do before embarking on the next two years of our lives. So being rather out of sorts, in addition to my natural clutziness, I managed to knock the curtains down in Christy and Grammy's guest room before we finally got out to the car. Sorry Auntie, but we gotta run!
The drive to PA was rather uneventful, with the exception of everyone on the East Coast driving like a complete maniac. We were honked at on ten thousand occasions, tailgated constantly, and nearly driven off the road, all before reaching Maryland. But at least the weather was nice. We need a bumper sticker that says "Out of Towners" or "West Coasters" or something.
We only got lost twice on the way up. Once in Frederick, PA (a silly place), and again in Harrisburg, PA (our accidental detour led us to an impressive view of the State Capitol building from across the Susquehanna River, so it was a happy mistake). Luckily, Aunt Christy had lent us her GPS navigation device, so we just fired that baby up and followed its overly harsh and matronly voice back to the right track. We decided to call her, the GPS, Phyllis. We kept turning Phyllis off because she's just so dang annoying when you think you know where you're going. But darned if Phyllis wasn't our new best friend once we were hopelessly lost in Frederick!
So a few wrong turns and several right ones out of Virginia, and we arrived in Lewisburg. It's so stinking and utterly cute, you feel like you must have taken a wrong turn and blundered onto the movie set for Pleasantville. It will take some adjusting to get used to the cuteness.
Our new apartment is better than expected. Eileen got excited about having a full-sized oven.
And I got excited about having a MASSIVE attic above our apartment that is ALL OURS.
Awesomely huge. It runs the entire length of the house. And super creepy to boot!
The drive back to Virginia was slightly less honky, since I've been picking up some of the maniac driving techniques. Eileen was not impressed. Look for the next update from yours truly in, oh, about a year from now.
The new place!
Hi! George was going to do this post, but he
hasn't yet, so I'm just going to do it. Maybe he'll do another one later.
hasn't yet, so I'm just going to do it. Maybe he'll do another one later.On Friday we went up to Lewisburg to check out the new place and sign the paper, and get the keys. When my professor Don went to look at the place in November, his report back indicated that the apartment was very dark, cavernous, and smelled very strongly of cigarette smoke. He sent pictures as well, and from that report we almost didn't want the place. But it really was our only option. We never found anywhere else to even consider. So when we were talking to the land lord we told him we were interested but very concerned about the smell. So he checked out the place, agreed with us, and replaced all the carpet, and painted the entire apartment.
Upon entering the apartment, the only thing we could smell was new paint and fresh carpet, not a hint of smoke. They painted over all of the dark wood paneling that was on the walls, in a nice white, so everything is very bright and nice. Even the carpet is re
ally nice. And it is much bigger than we thought it would be. The picture is me in the living room. We have so much space! We definitely don't have enough stuff to fill it, but it's okay. If George were writing this, he'd go on and on about the attic, but maybe I'll save that post for him. Moral of the story is that our place is great, so come visit!
ally nice. And it is much bigger than we thought it would be. The picture is me in the living room. We have so much space! We definitely don't have enough stuff to fill it, but it's okay. If George were writing this, he'd go on and on about the attic, but maybe I'll save that post for him. Moral of the story is that our place is great, so come visit!The town of Lewisburg is really cute. We haven't seen it all yet, but it is very much unlike any place I have ever lived and it is definitely going to take some adjusting to.
We went back to Falls Church on Saturday because our stuff isn't due to arrive until Wednesday so no unpacking or nesting for me yet. But soon! And then you all can come visit! We have an address, but I don't want to post it on the internets so I'm going to send it out to most people soon, but if you want it now, or if for some reason I don't get the e-mail to you, then please let me know and I"ll e-mail it to you.
Thanks for all the comments everyone! Happy New Year!!
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