march showers

well, baby showers at least... and since it is Cleveland, we have had a bit of rain, though nothing obnoxious. This past weekend Danette's mother and grandmother flew in from ND and MO respectively for a baby shower that our friend Beverly threw for Danette. I stayed home and worked during the shower, but earlier in the day I introduced mom and grandma to BabiesRUs... they were a bit surprised by the size of the place, but that didn't slow down the pre-shower shopping (and in-store, self-service gift wrapping)... Danette on the other-hand was enjoying herself at prenatal yoga.

Here is a nice picture of four generations (totaling 15/16 of an Icelander if my math is correct) prior to going to the shower.

It was nice having family in town for the weekend and eating out a bit by getting some dinner at Pearl of the Orient on Saturday night and breakfast at the Inn on Coventry before taking grandma to the airport.

This week is pretty typical at work - teaching and working on a proposal.... though today was pretty short as Danette had an appointment with the OB this morning (all good) and we had our first pre-natal visit with a pediatrician this afternoon. She seemed pretty nice and reasonable - funny thing though, I checked out her website afterward (it isn't easy to find, unfortunately) and it turns out she did her undergraduate work in Geology... not sure if that gives her a leg up or not on becoming the kid's doctor... we both liked her though. We meet another highly-recommended doctor next week and we'll probably decide between the two. The OB told us that we chose a good two to interview and that the hardest part would be choosing because they are both so good... he was probably right.... ah well, a good problem to have.

a day at the (french) beach

So, after coming back to the 'cooler' weather prevailing here in Ohio after actually having some decent March weather in Houston last week I started flipping through photos and re-found this one from our trip last September to LaBaule, France for Nate and Claire's wedding... it was just a long-weekend for us between teaching days for me, but the beach was glorious. In fact it is apparently the longest sand beach in all of Europe... and amazingly it reminded me in size at least of Park Point (Minnesota Point on most maps).. This pic was from the day after the wedding when we were just bumming around and watching all the locals take advantage of low-tide and picking up all the oysters and all the other fruit-of-the-sea left for the taking... pretty impressive actually.

Interesting, we didn't know it at the time, but this was the first trip we took with the baby-to-be-named-later...

Happy Spring! 

back from texas

actually I am writing this from the plane and will post it when I truly am back, but whatever...


The meeting was good. I learned some new things about the Moon and Mars and a few other things too. The meeting seems bigger all the time, but it is a good chance to see friends and colleagues spread around the country (and world) for that matter. Other than talking directly about research, I basically engaged in two types of conversations with people (1) budget cuts for science at our funding source of choice... an age-old problem, I know but not always pleasant - especially to those of us that didn't live through the really lean times... and (2) the baby-to-be-named-later.... a number of friends have recently had kids or also have them on the way... so advice abounded, mainly along the lines of "sleep in now, 'cuz it won't happen again
", which is probably true. One friend, known for not sugar-coating things said something along the lines that, basically it is like all the horror stories you've heard, only worse - but completely worth it.... the most disturbing realization, though, came when my friend and former officemate Becky and I realized that we have now been out of grad school as long as we were in it...

All-in-all it was a good work meeting and fun to see people too... I got to see Matt and Michelle's daughter at her first conference (even had her own name tag)... and I picked up a few more gifts for the baby, including a true highlight - a Hug-a-Mars! Yes, the kid now has their first stuffed, geologic map of Mars.... Baby Einstein beat that!


Now it is time to get back to work and do some more writing...

Postscript: I should note that those gifts for the baby were from friends, not me going shoppin' at the local western wear store down in Houston...

Houston... we have touchdown.

It is time for my annual pilgrimage to the home of human spaceflight program... or rather to a hotel very near it for a meeting. I'm looking forward to the meeting, there is a lot of great science going on now, and some cool discoveries that I am sure will be announced. Of course, I will get to briefly catch up with a bunch of friends that I pretty much only see at meetings like this anymore - so that will be fun too. In fact, a number of friends live in the Houston area now that some of us try to get together with on Monday night... don't actually get to see Rich or Stacey at the meeting because they are working in the corporate world now... ironically at the same company even though they barely overlapped in grad school... So, I head out tomorrow afternoon and will be back mid-week so that I can take a couple of days while students are gone on spring break and get some uninterupted work done.... In an odd twist, it turns out that my friend Chad who lives on the west coast now, will actually be in Texas too this week on business, but not in Houston unfortunately, and Austin is a little far, but ironic nevertheless... so, I'll be leavin' on a jet 'plane...

last weekend's chest full of fun

so, I promised some pics of the dresser that I worked on last weekend while Danette was in DC visiting Cari, so here they are. The first is the before, nice unfinished, Shaker style, maple, mule chest (not sure why it has that name). Good height for us to secure a changing pad to the top.

After some sanding and a couple of coats of Zar's Honey Maple, we get the after shot... a nice neutral color, just a little more tan, but very natural and it goes with some other furniture already in the baby's room... I will have to post pictures once we have it all ready to go... we only have one coat of poly on at the moment and didn't get anywhere on it during the week, but hopefully we can finish it up tomorrow.

For those of you keeping score at home, yes this is the dining area of the kitchen... the garage was too cold to have drying times less than a week, so I took advantage of the kitchen exhaust fan and the pocket doors to keep this area well-ventilated, but keep any fumes out of the rest of the house... may not have been great on the heating bill for those couple of days, but the rest of the house stayed relatively stink-free, which was a nice plus for when Danette came home. 

and the Oscar goes to...

Okay, so I am not all that original with titles... if you've read any of my papers you might not be that surprised.

News items of the week...

1. Sounds like Mom and Dad are having a good time in Toronto and that Dad might get to practice some of his Chinese...
2. My work environment was a little (publically) 'Harvard-like' last week...
   
3. The baby's dresser is stained and even has a coat of poly on it... looks pretty good (pics later)
   
4. Reese Witherspoon and George Clooney won Oscars... yeah, I know you didn't come here to read that, but c'est la vie..
5. Danette had a good trip to DC to visit with Cari (who is due a week after Danette) and Ben... and even got to see both Rew and Dana too... meanwhile, I slaved on number (3) above...
6. I know I must be about to get a little older because I just got my March email from my college roommate Peter who always remembers my birthday... though it might help that we are only a week apart... well, at least it helps me remember his at least... or is it his email that helps me remember mine? .hmmm..... whatever.
   
7. If you haven't yet caught onto the phenomenon that is Nate's blog - start now to follow is grand adventures in medicine and on safari in Botswana.
8. and oh yeah, UNC beat (#1) Duke!!!!!!!!!!!!