...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!!