Christmas Traditions - New and Old

Merry Christmas! Well it is a day late but oh well, deal with it. I had a WONDERFUL Christmas, even though it was a little strange to be away from family. I wish it were Sunday again so I could relive the past two days.

We created a new tradition on Christmas Eve and went snowshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was beautiful! Also, it was really nice to do a little preemptive calorie burning. ;) We got to the trailhead at 11:00 and actually saw someone I know from the cycling team there - small world! He was the only other person we saw on the trail that day, that's really nice. It was pretty cold, mostly in the teen's and 20's, and sometimes windy, but we were both comfortable once we started hiking. I wore my fleece-lined tights and lightweight blue EMS pants, two pairs of socks, and my montrail boots. On top I had a base layer, a wicking long-sleeve shirt, and my primaloft vest. These were fine for hiking uphill, but my marmot rain jacket and a lightweight fleece also came in handy from time to time. Ok ... that was probably boring but it is good for my own reference to know what works on these outings.

We probably hiked about 4 miles up the Lawn Lake Trail - starting at 11:15 and turning around close to 2:00. We had a fabulous lunch of hummus and veggie pitas, and then hiked downhill. Going downhill is so wonderful in snowshoes! We got back to the car right about 4:00 - perfect timing!

We were pretty hungry when we got home so we ate dinner in stages. First I put the ziti in the oven for 1:45 (too long!). Then Chris made some garlic bread for course #1. Course #2 was an antipasto salad, complete with salami, provolone, and olives - yum! We also opened a bottle of wine that Chris bought in Paris in 2002! Our last bottle of French wine, and I think it was a worthy occassion! After salad, I made brownies with my ghiradelli's chocolate from San Francisco and stuck them in the oven just as the ziti came out.

The ziti was really good but the top was overcooked and we had a few very crunchy pieces (kind of like the chewy turkey in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation!). Also the sauce was too thick - two things to remember for next time! But it was a wonderful meal, and I enjoyed talking to Chris about how it was nice to be on our own but kind of weird to be away from family. I've felt that since some of the usual things we associate with Christmas (family, exchanging presents) weren't here this year, it kind of forced me to appreciate what we really should be celebrating every year - that God came to us, which if you think about it (and believe in God and Jesus) is reason enough alone to get really excited! Chris agreed. We also talked a little bit about how our faiths have changed this year, especially Chris's with the stress of being out of work for so long. I think it has been a kind of transformational experience for him. He learned that he is capable of making a living working independently. He was hoping to find a job that would allow him to further a cause, rather than line someone's pocket, but that didn't work out (at least not yet). But he has been presented with an opportunity to use his talents for good on a trip to an AIDS clinic in Jos, Nigeria next month! So overall it has been a great year, and I am so so happy that we are both growing spiritually. I feel like I need much more work, but that is another story!

Anyway, we finished the main course and then had delicious brownies with mint chocolate chip ice cream. :) Around 10:30 we left for church. We met Mollie and Rob and their friends (and Kelty) there. It was a very nice service. And about half-way through, we started to see big while things float by the stained-glass window! Snow??! It was beautiful, and it seemed like the congregations singing was doubled with the excitement of a white Christmas. Turns out, it was just graupel (rain/snow mix), but at least it had looked pretty during church. Chris and I went to bed by 1:00, it had been a busy day and didn't take long to fall asleep!

Christmas morning we got to sleep in and didn't start moving around until about 10:30. Wonderful! We spent the morning leisurely eating breakfast (ambrosia), talking to family, and opening presents. We exchanged very modest presents (less than $10 each) but I was completely fine with it. I just felt happy to be with him, and we actually had quite a few other presents to open from family. I gave Chris a shirt I had bought at a thrift store on Haight St. in San Francisco, and he gave me a nalgene with a flower on it. :) Good stuff!

We lounged a little and had some more antipasto salad, but not too long because we had to cook some things for dinner at Tim and Erica's. I made a pumpkin pie (just using the recipe on the can and it was pretty good!) and a broccoli casserole. Then we went to our friends' house for turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries, and gravy - yum! It was a great meal and nice to hang out with friends. Of course, we were all exhausted after eating so much, so we relaxed and watched Casino Royale on their big screen tv. (I would have to say that I really like this James Bond. There is usually plenty of eye candy for the men in these movies, so I'm happy to see that this one was an equal opportunity flick. ;) It was a good evening!

Of course, we got home and I had to watch the 5th Harry Potter. I'm afraid I might be somewhat obsessed. Well ... Chris fell asleep half-way through, which means we get to watch it again soon! Anyway, all these silly things aside, it really was a wonderful Christmas! I bet we will be back in Georgia next year, but for the next time it is just Chris and I (well, and maybe one more?), we have began some great traditions! :)

Now Chris is back to work and I actually have some work to do too. I want to mostly take the next three days off. I want to paint our kitchen tomorrow! And, we might even paint the cabinets, too! Hallelujah! It will be nice to have a fresh look in here. Then some time in 2008 we can redo the counter tops (we need to wait a bit b/c we just spent about $900 on a new sliding glass door!). Today, I need to start up another model run and do some writing for CMMAP (2-3 hours). Then I can go buy paint, and clean up a little to get ready for the project ahead. Hopefully I can get it all done. At least I don't have to worry about making dinner, we will be eating ziti the rest of the week! :)

Bye!

Getting ready for Christmas!

It was nice to have a 4-day weekend so we could relax and spend time over the weekend getting ready for Christmas. We did a little bit of last minute shopping on Saturday, most of which was spent at King Soopers. I got an early Christmas present - the 4th and 5th Harry Potter DVD's - yippee! - so we watched no. 4 Saturday night.

Sunday morning we went to church, and then to one of my favorite stores - Whole Foods, where we bought olives and bread and ate enough free samples to fill us up until dinner. :) I thought I might go for a run when I got home, but Tiger had other plans. Usually he is very vocal when we get home. He is either there to greet us, sleeping on the couch, or comes running when we call him. Well, he was nowhere to be seen. We searched the entire house at least twice - every cabinet, every closet, tossed the covers around on the bed, and he was gone! We both felt it was very unlikely he had gotten out of the house that morning, but we searched neighborhood a couple of times, and asked some of our neighbors to keep an eye out for him. I was starting to feel pretty hopeless, and we both were worried that bringing two new cats into the house had pushed him over the edge. Chris went back to our bedroom to look again, and noticed a lump under the sheets - there was Tiger sound asleep, completely oblivious to our rabid and noisy search for him! What a brat! But I was so relieved he was okay, and we gave him some tuna juices just for being alive. We had searched for 1-1/2 hours! Aahh!

So, now it was time to start cooking. I had gotten my grandfather's Italian baked ziti recipe from my Aunt, and wanted to get it ready on Sunday so that on Christmas Eve (monday), we could just pop it in the oven. First I made some sauce, and then did some chores around the house while it cooked. Then Chris helped me make meatballs, which we simplified by using only ground beef instead of the 3 or 4 different kinds of meat I remember Pops using. Then I cooked some pasta, stirfried some eggplant, grated some cheese, and boiled 2 eggs ... now it was ready to put together! There was so much food it barely fit into our 13x9 pan. Well, actually it didn't fit because we have extra meatballs and pasta!

We barely had time to prepare dinner for Sunday before we had to rush over to our friend's Mollie and Rob's house. They have friends in town and wanted to go out to dinner without their 4 month old, Kelty, so we watched her for a few hours. It was fun, she is pretty easy to play with because she mostly just sits there. She is very fascinated by Chris' beard, it's funny. It's fun to have a baby to play with, but nice to hand her back to Mom and Dad at the end of the night! :) Thanks for reading!

Kitties

Well I am now two cats closer to being a crazy cat lady. A friend of mine from school, Maike (but I pronounce it more like "Mia"), has taken a job in England that starts in a few weeks. She wants to bring her cats, but there are a lot of hoops to jump through to get animals into England, and so she cannot bring her cats there until March. So we are taking care of them in the meantime. Their names are Maggie and Shelby. They arrived on Tuesday night and are currently staying in one of our spare bedrooms. Tiger is a little freaked out to have other cats in the house - he gives the room a suspicious glance every time he walks by it. Maggie and Shelby are adjusting well. Tonight, Maike came over for dinner and visited the cats. We had some fish tacos and then sat in the bedroom with the cats and chit-chatted. It's been a nice evening.

Work has been pretty good this week. I took Monday off to go Christmas shopping and shipping. I have been trying to spend a few hours each day working on the CMMAP website. It is hard right now for two reasons: 1. I actually am generating results and I really want to look at them and make plots and write a thesis! and 2. Sometimes I wonder how useful all this writing is, and I hope I am not just reinventing the wheel. Sometimes I want to question the utility of this, but then again I am getting paid pretty well to do it and so it is hard to complain. But I am really excited about my results and I feel like the next few months will be very productive!

Another exciting thing that happened today is I went running for almost 6 miles - my longest run in probably about 2 years. I probably walked about 1/3 of the time, but it still only took just over an hour so I feel pretty good about that. My knees felt great while I was running but actually felt a little funny when I walked. I will be careful about them. I think it will help a lot if I don't run every day, stretch a lot, and it would probably help if I got back on the bike to help with the leg strength side of things. But I am glad to be able to run again. I went during lunch and it was a wonderful break.

Now Tiger is sitting on me and we are watching college football (woohoo!). But Chris is pestering me so I ought to go. It is almost time to go to bed anyway.

Wine Country

So Saturday morning we checked out of the Westin :(, and got picked up by Nick in our fancy, gas-guzzling Armada. Kind of ironic after spending a week talking about climate change. We were joined by Becca Mazur, who got her Master's at CSU this past year and is now training to forecast with the National Weather Center in Eureka, CA. It was nice to have her on the trip.
We drove to Napa Valley and arrived right around noon. Our first stop was Flora Springs. They had very good Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Oh yeah, I am not at all a wine snob. I am not very picky with my wines, and I can't pick up on those subtle nuances that people talk about. I just like wine, mostly red. Anyway, the first place was nice and they gave us some recommendations that came in handy later. Then we went across the street to V. Sattui, which was way more crowded and not as good. The best part about it was the people we were tasting next to were hilarious. We met up with Brad, his fiance, and their friend there, but then went our separate ways. The next stop was Ballentine, which turned out to be our favorite. It was just us and the pourer and she was really friendly and answered all of our ignorant questions about wineries and vineyards. The tastings were really generous too, and we didn't have to pay for them because we all bought wine there. Chris and I each bought a Zinfindel (?), and Nick bought a $40 port (woohoo, expensive!).
We were all feeling pretty happy after that, and next went to the Frank Family vineyard. I abstained at this stop so I could drive. The next stop was very disappointing. I don't even remember the name, but it was $10 and we got 3 very meager tastes. It sucked. We checked out one more place but didn't taste, and instead decided to go find a campsite and buy some wine at a store to drink there. Anyway, most places were closing because it was about 4:30 and getting dark. Oh yeah, the valley is really pretty, with rolling hills and vineyards everywhere. It would be cool to be there in the summer, when there are actually grapes on the vine.
So we found a campsite outside of Napa and drank the wine Chris and I had bought the night before, then headed off to dinner. We all wanted wine with dinner but didn't want to pay for it, so Chris had a brilliant idea. I had brought the coffee cups from my hotel room, and their lids, so we had "coffee" and walked around Napa. Haha. We even took our "coffee" into the restaurant. Wow, that was a lot of coffee! There was a lot of vino flowing on Saturday but never really felt drunk, so it was quite nice. And my dinner was really delicious ... I had ravioli again. Yum! Camping was nice and we were all asleep by 9:30. :)
So that is about it from our trip to San Fran, we had a great time. It was a very good group and 4 was the perfect number, I think. Nick even told Chris and I that we are his favorite couple from Georgia. Haha, how sweet.

Nerd Take-Over of San Francisco, Days 4 & 5

Well now I am back home, and it feels good! Thursday and Friday of the AGU conference were a blur because I was so drained from the poster session on Wednesday. Thursday morning Erica and I went out to breakfast at Cafe de la Presse, a delicious French cafe where my friend Stephane Fondement works. I know him from the cycling team. It was nice to see him but he was pretty busy. He works a lot, guess you pretty much have to in order to survive in San Francisco!
The best sessions I went to on Thursday were in the late afternoon, and I didn't leave the conference until 6:20, so it was a long day. They were all focused on the environmental effects of climate change and on the concept of tipping points in the climate system - at what point have we gone too far? They were all pretty interesting and the next to last talk was from another researcher at Georgia Tech and was about drought in the Amazon.
Thursday night I went to Fisherman's Warf with Nick, Brad, and Erica. I was so tired I was feeling a little delirious, and then we went to Ghiradelli's square and got pretty goofy after OD'ing on chocolate. :)
Friday was another blur and most of the people in my group had their posters, so I enjoyed browsing through the posters. I went to lunch with Ian, Marek, and Lixin (all researchers in my group) to a really cool Cantonese restaurant that serves dim sum - it is kind of like Chinese tapas. The waitresses bring the food around on carts and you pick and chose what you want to eat. It was really great because Lixin is Chinese, so she knew what is good and could ask for special things from the servers. It was really good stuff, except for the seaweed.
I was excited all day because Chris came to San Fran on Friday night. He arrived around 6:00. I gave him the tour of my spacious room and then we went out to an Italian restaurant in the alley where I ate on Monday, called Tiramisu. I guess Friday was my day for eating strange food because I had cavier on my dinner, but it wasn't too bad. My main dish was crab ravioli, yum! We had a good dinner and then had some beer at a sports bar. Then we decided we needed to practice for Saturday (when we went to Napa Valley), and so bought a bottle of wine to enjoy back at the hotel. It was really fun to have him in the city with me and live it up for a night (our dinner was pretty expensive and we would never spend that much on a date if I weren't on a per diem!).

Nerd Take-over of San Francisco - Day 3

Wed. Dec. 12
I am done with my poster presentation! Yes!! It went pretty well. But I will start from the beginning of the day first. As usual, I did not get out of bed until about 30 minutes after the alarm went off. I rode on the bike in the health club this morning and it made me realize two things: 1. I miss riding my road bike, and 2. I have strong preference toward the skinny saddle on my road bike versus the overly wide and cushy ones that are on stationary bikes.
So, anyway … I was a little later getting to the conference than I would have liked but oh well. I was pretty tired today and found myself falling asleep twice this morning (even after buying some coffee). During the morning break, Erica and Ian found me so I could show my poster to Ian. It was good to show it to him and he gave me some pointers on what I should talk about. Then I went to some talks regarding snow. One was about how snow is melting about 2 weeks earlier in the Colorado Rockies than it was 25 years ago. Another was about the retreat of glaciers in the American West. Here is something interesting – glacier melt is due to a combination of climate and local topography. For example, a small glacier that is in the shade of surrounding slopes won’t melt very much, even under global warming. But big glaciers are mostly open to sunlight and so they melt a lot each year as temperatures rise. So, large glaciers are retreating at rapid rates, but it will be a long time before all the small glaciers melt. Interesting. The last talk of the morning was about glaciers in a mountain range in Uganda, and the pictures were really cool because there are some weird plants there.
During lunch there was a special talk by Susan Solomon. She was one of the instrumental scientists involved in discovering why ozone is strongly depleted each winter over Antarctica. More recently, she was a chair of an IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) group and was in Oslo yesterday receiving part of the Nobel Peace Prize for this work (along with Al Gore). Her talk was very interesting – she talked a lot about the ozone hole and current research related to it, as well as some about climate change and policy.
After the talk it was time for my poster! I started at 1:30 and was busy until 5:45 with people coming by and asking questions and looking at it. I enjoy explaining my research, and it is even kind of fun to answer questions and to discuss with people certain aspects of the research. I got a few good ideas from people. Scott came by and said he liked the poster. He is funny because he cannot help but interrupt when I am talking about my research. He just gets so excited about it that he has to interject. He did this a couple times and kept apologizing but I don’t mind because he knows better than me what is most important about this study and is really good at communicating it. One man came by who works with a branch of NSF that awards student grants for international travel. So now I actually have a practical avenue to pursue for going to Brazil!! If I am going to continue studying the Amazon, it really makes sense for me to go there. I would love to see the rainforest, but even going to Brazil to collaborate with the people who make observations would be instrumental. So we will see, but I am pretty sure I will be applying for one of those grants. Another highlight of the session was toward the end, a woman who Scott had introduced me to and works at Rutgers walked by and said goodbye, and she said she voted for my poster as the best student poster. That is cool, because I kind of felt like the poster was inadequate because of how preliminary all of my results are. But I guess that even though the results are rough, I have put a lot of thought (1-1/2 years!) into the science behind the research. So overall it was a really good afternoon!
I was exhausted though, after being on my feet all afternoon and talking to people the whole time. So I treated myself to a frappachinno at one of the million Starbucks between the convention center and my hotel. I felt like I deserved some thing like that after all of the work I have done this semester. It felt good when I finished my project last Wed. for 604, and it felt good when I finished my poster at 9 AM Sunday, but finishing the presentation made it official that all of the work of this fall is done. I am so relieved! And, I am very happy that it ended on a high note.
I got back to my room at 6:20 and just sat on the chaise lounge (fancy) until 6:40, when I had to leave for a meeting for the LBA-MIP. Haha, lots of anacronyms! LBA is the Large-scale Biosphere experiment in Amazonia. It was a NASA-funded program that involved the establishment of a handful of observations stations throughout the Amazon River basin. The funding has run out, but there is still a lot of research following up on the project (like mine). MIP stands for Model Inter-comparison. It is common in this field for there to be several different models that all try to do the same thing. There are a lot of vegetation models like the one I use, and the MIP basically involves all these modelers running their models for certain locations in the Amazon and then comparing them all to observations and to each other. That way you can see what are the strengths and weaknesses of each model and then all of the models can be improved based on these results. That is the gist of it.
The meeting was not too interesting, except that Scott said I should go to the next LBA-MIP conference, which will be in Manaus, Brazil next July … sweet!! ☺ Now all I need to do is hire Chris as my assistant. After the meeting I went out with Nick, Brad, and Erica for a drink. I had a $15 margarita – but I earned it, dammit! Funny story – last night my research group went out for dinner but I couldn’t go because of the section dinner I went to. But Nick said that Scott brought me up and felt bad that I couldn’t be there, and also that I have been working so hard on my poster – so they toasted me … haha, it is kind of funny. At least I was missed. ☺
Ok … time for bed! It is 12:45, and tomorrow I am sleeping in until 7:00!! Woohoo! Goodnight.

Nerd Take-over of San Francisco - Day 2

Tuesday, Dec. 11 11:35 PM
Another long day! My alarm went off at 6 AM and this time I was out of the room by 6:40. I was going to run outside but was just too tired to try to find a route and deal with running in an unfamiliar city in the dark. So I caved and paid $30 for a week of working out in the cramped workout room in my hotel. Oh well, at least now I have extra motivation to work out every day.
I made it to the meeting by 8:30. There were a lot of good talks today – quite a few related to my research in the Ecohydrology and Climate Change: Observations and Predictions section. At noon, I went to the Atmospheric Sciences section Executive Committee lunch … it is funny to me that I am invited to this lunch because it sounds so official. It is actually pretty informal. I go because I am the newsletter of the section’s newsletter. It was nice to hear that people are enjoying the newsletter – although I heard from 3 people today that they didn’t know anything about it. So we need to check the e-mail list. I also go because it is a free lunch. ☺
After lunch I went to more talks regarding hydrology and biology. I went to some talks about the public’s perceptions of climate change and how scientists can better convey the truth about our research. This was interesting and is also useful for the writing I do for the CMMAP website. One guy talked about “alternative conceptions” (because “misconceptions” is not PC) that people have about global warming. People associate it with pollution and ozone loss, and sometimes associate the carbon cycle with the water cycle. These kinds of things are good to keep in mind as I write about climate change! Oh yeah, and I met a guy named James someone tonight who works for a nonprofit called Environmental Defense. He writes about climate change for the public, I should look at that website or track down his e-mail address, that could be a good resource.
Now I am done talking to myself. The last two talks I went to tonight were awesome! They were about volcanoes. One was about bursting lava bubbles in Mt Erebus in Antarctica. He had a video of a bubble exploding and it was really cool. The next talk was about a volcano 550 m beneath the Pacific Ocean near the Marianas Trench. He had a lot of videos with eruptions and they were impressive. It is cool to watch stuff blow up. ☺
After the meeting I walked down to Whole Foods to buy some food for the next couple of days. I bought 5 pounds of oranges … they are sooo good!! I usually don’t shop at Whole Foods b/c it is so expensive, but since everything is over-priced in San Fran, I don’t mind so much. At 7:00 I went to the AS section dinner. It was in China Town and the food was really good, except I was at a table with 5 vegetarians and there was not much for them to eat. I met some nice people, mostly young folks like me. Michel was there too, and afterward I went to the bar at the top of Marriott with him and two gals from Univ. of Leeds in the U.K. – Christine and … um, gosh I am so bad with names. There was a crazy singing lady at the dinner. She was pretty funny, she sang these songs about climate change, GCM’s, greenhouse gases … it was odd but entertaining, too. I have video on my phone, I wonder if I can post it somehow.
Well, tomorrow is my poster. I am un-enthused, because my results are so preliminary. Basically, my results were available at 5:30 Sat. I spent a couple hours thinking about them and then made my poster. I am nervous that what I thought was acceptable at 4 AM is not actually that great. I’m not looking at it until tomorrow morning, after working out, while I’m eating my yogurt and amazing granola and coffee. Then if it sucks I can at least take solace in the vanilla almond goodness.
So speaking of which, I should go to sleep. I should get up at 5:30 so I can prepare myself for the day and still get to the meeting by 8. Ugh!!! Oh well … I am still having fun!
Oh yeah, two things I wanted to mention: 1. Walking several miles in high heels seems to result in shin splints. 2. I get a kick out of how many people have been complaining about how cold it is. When I left Colorado, it had been in the 20’s (as a high) for several days and was snowing. Chris called this morning and said it snowed 6 inches last night. In contrast, it is a very pleasant 50 degrees here. And every other person I see is talking about how cold it is! It’s hilarious, people are walking around in fur coats with hats and scarves. It is even a big deal on the news channel. But to be fair, it will be in the 20’s in Sonoma tonight – which is pretty cold. But I am not thick-skinned, I get cold pretty easily, so for me to think these people are being wimpy is saying something.
Anyway, that is it for now. I have to get my beauty sleep … or more appropriately brain sleep. Good night!

Nerd Take-over of San Francisco - Day 1

Monday Dec. 10, 11:45 PM
Hello from San Francisco! I am pooped, but have had a good day. I overslept this morning until 7:40 … oops. I didn’t get much sleep Friday night, and I only slept 2 hours Saturday night because I was finishing my poster, so I don’t feel too bad for oversleeping. I still made it to the conference by 9:30. I was lucky enough to go to a talk by someone from Georgia Tech. Despite being a school of nerds, there is a research group there that does some work that I find very interesting. I should see if any of them has a poster this week so I could talk to them. This talk was about cloud cover trends in the Tropics. They found that, according to a particular satellite, cloud cover has been decreasing in the Tropics in the past couple of decades. I am not sure if this is because of local effects, or if it is because of large-scale forcings that may connect to the Atlantic and East Pacific Oceans.
One of the best things about AGU is that there is a wide diversity of interesting talks. For example, I went to one that was a study of the Maassai tribe in Kenya, a nomadic tribe that is very sensitive to climate change. It is kind of sad that nomads are on the brink of extinction, due to a combination of factors that include increased droughts and land-use changes (privatization of land). I also stopped by some good posters. I met a woman, Tracey, from the Univ. of Wisconsin, who has started a group for women in the Earth Sciences that I will probably join. It is kind of a networking/support/Q&A group that has 500 women from all over the world. I saw a poster comparing maternity leave in the U.S. to other nations, and saw that we have a pretty crappy deal. By law, women get no paid leave in the U.S. In Norway, they get 42 weeks at 100% pay. I also stopped by a poster by Michel Mesquita, one of the reporters for the newsletter I edit. He is an incredibly friendly and positive guy, and it was good to learn more about his research (on the effects of melting Arctic sea ice on high latitude storms).
I had lunch with Brad, a recent graduate from CSU who now works in Boulder, and Nick, from my group. I managed to only spend $5 on lunch at Whole Foods – way to go me! After lunch, I went to a few talks in the Global Change section, including one on future changes in precipitation in the Amazon due to El Nino. I skipped out of the meetings at 3:30. This afternoon was the only extended period of time when there were no talks that I really wanted to go to. I had a really nice afternoon. I took bus #71 up Haight Street (saw a hooker along the way) and took a stroll through Buena Vista park. It is located on a hill and has beautiful eucalyptus and conifer trees, and a stupendous view at the top of the bay, ocean, mountains, city, and of course the Golden Gate Bridge. I would recommend this park to anyone visiting the city. I wish I had more time to walk around, but it was getting dark and I didn’t want to be in the woods alone. After that, I walked along Haight and Ashbury and did some shopping in the myriad of thrift stores. No comment on if I bought anything. ;) It was fun, and I got back to my side of town (near Union Square) in time to meet up with Brad, Joe Munchak, and Erica for dinner. We went to an Italian seafood restaurant in a cute alley that has about 6 restaurants. I enjoyed some lobster and prawns pasta, and a $6.50 pint of Pilsner Urquell – yikes!!! I had to make sure to drink the whole thing at that price.
After dinner, we stopped by the cheesecake Factory for some take-out dessert, and then Brad, Joe, Nick, and I went to Brad’s hotel room for some wine and vegging. Now I am more than ready to go to sleep! I love being here! ☺

The Best Breakfast Ever!

Over the last few days, it has snowed almost 30 inches in the mountains (more in some places). So, even though I am still not done with my poster, Chris and I decided to go enjoy the powder today! We woke up at 5:30 (even though I was up till 2 working on the poster), struggled over whether it would be worth braving the road conditions, and then finally left the house a little after 6. Things were pretty good, I-25 had snow on it but some parts of it were pretty clear. But my windshield wipers were not getting the job done, and a block of ice was slowly spreading from the top of the windshield. We stopped for gas south of Loveland, and after listening to the traffic report (overturned truck, avalanche prevention, emergency bridge repairs, tunnel closures once an hour for hazardous material transport), we decided to turn around. We got royally screwed last year twice with traffic - one time we sat on I-70 for an hour before learning it was completely shut down - so we did not want to risk that headache, especially since I still have to finish my poster. Plus, we were planning on taking lessons, which would probably be on a groomed trail, and wouldn't even be able to enjoy the powder until after lunch.

This could have been very disappointing, but we decided to make getting up at 5:30 worth it by having breakfast at Chik-fil-A in Loveland. It was the best!! I love their chicken biscuits, they are so warm and buttery and delicious. Yum. Then we bought two $20 gift cards, which came with two free calendars. Next years have some really sweet coupons, so we are looking forward to a happy year of eating at chik-fil-A. Then, Chris brought in their newspaper and the guys behind the counter gave us 3 more coupons for free sandwiches.

So I do not regret getting up early. It was kind of an adventure with Chris, I got some gas station coffee, and we had our favorite breakfast. Now we are home and it's not even 8:30 yet, so we have the whole day ahead of us! Although I think a nap will be in order at some point. Hopefully we'll be able to enjoy the snow some day soon - but if not, at least we'll have saved some money. (I am a glass half-full kind of person).

Oh, I should also mention that my poster is coming along well and yesterday was one of the best days I've had in a while, just because it seems like maybe things are finally going my way! :) Bye!

Freedom!!

Phew, I have survived what is probably the most difficult class I have ever taken! I turned in my final project yesterday - an idealized, very simple non-divergent vorticity model. Now that I have used a few big words to make myself feel smart, I'll move on.
I am kind of too tired to appreciate the class being over. I was working at the department until 2:30 AM Monday night and stayed all night on Tuesday, so I am still catching up from the lack of sleep. I also still have some work to do the next few days so I cannot completely relax yet. I have to make a poster for the conference I am going to next week, and my model is still running! In fact, I don't expect it to finish the first year of simulation until about 4 AM Sunday, and my flight leaves 3:30 that afternoon! So I am not sure what will happen there. I can make a poster with less than a year of results, but I have not decided what to do. My adviser came by my office today to tell me it would be okay if I end up withdrawing from the conference - that everyone does it and I shouldn't be ashamed if I have to do it, especially considering it is not completely my fault (there have been 3 power outages the past 3 weeks, one of them shutting down the computers for about 5 days). It was nice to hear him say that, but I am pretty sure I can have something ready by Wed (when my presentation is).
Anyways, I am very very excited about the conference. It is in San Francisco and there are lots of interesting talks to hear and posters to see, and good food to be eaten. The hotel we stay in is top-notch, so I'm even looking forward to sleeping in that huge, comfy bed! :)
I am also very excited to have a life again! Now that the class is over I can probably "only" work 40 hours a week, like a normal person! I can come home at night and hang out with my husband! Maybe, just maybe, I can ride my bike someday, too! Yay! Actually, I have been running and swimming a few days a week, so I am not too bent out of shape about not riding recently.
Well I am going to go now. I am going to address our Christmas cards - woohoo! :) Coming soon to a mailbox near you ...
Bye!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Daydreaming

Well, I am going to break my rule of not blogging at work. I am debugging code that is being run on multiple processors and it is a pain and very slow. Basically, I do some work and then have to wait for the code to run to see if what I did worked. It takes a while but not long enough for me to start another project while I wait.

So ... life has been pretty good. Chris is working late and I'm glad he has a lot to do, we are both just a little anxious that the work will continue - maybe at a slightly less frenzied pace. But I don't want to talk about work.

I want to talk about the Haute Route!! This is something I've been wanting to do for years, and I really think that next summer is THE time to do it. This is a 180 km trail that goes from Chamonix, France to Zermatt, Switzerland (through the Alps!). It sounds amazing! To hike it, most people take almost 2 weeks. A plus is that you stay in huts along the way that have beds and food, so you carry very little gear and can just cruise along and enjoy the scenery. Yesterday I killed some time looking at some websites about it and wow!! It would be ideal to spend three weeks in France/Switzerland, so that we could do some other sight-seeing activities before/after the hike. My grandfather (Pops) left each of his grandkids with some money, he did not have a lot, but it would be enough to cover the airfare plus a little more. (We already spent some of that money when we went to Hawaii - thanks Pops!!!). So it is definitely feasible - the biggest hurdle will be Chris getting that much time off. He should start talking about it now, though ... I want to go soooo bad! It is good timing for me because I will be transitioning between Masters and PhD, so taking a lot of time off wouldn't kill me.



Above is the Haute Route in winter. That would be amazing - you can ski it in about a week, but we are not quite at that level of snowboarding/avalanche awareness yet. Maybe one day!

Chris and I just have so much that we want to do. Even within the state of Colorado there is an infinite number of fun things. We still haven't been to the San Juan mountains, I definitely want to go there. Also I hear the Flat Tops are cool, and there is great mountain biking on the western slope. Those are some things I'd still like to do. Then there's lots of fun stuff close by - Rocky Mountain, the Rawahs and Mt Zirkel wilderness. We also need to go to Yellowstone ... and the Wind River Range up that way is phenomenal. And, we both really want to return to Moab. OH, Utah, that brings up a whole bunch more things we'd like to see. Then there's New Mexico ... it is too much! :) But what a wonderful 'problem' to have!

Yum .... beer!!!!!!!!!! Drink up

Code is running slowly today ...

What Kind of Drink Are You?
	You are a Pint of Beer. You're happy with who you are. Sure, you may not be the 'sophisticated' and 'refined' type, but at least you're real. You don't let the little things get to you, and you have a good time no matter what life throws at you. Keep it up.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Killing Time

Well, it is late, but I need to unwind a little before I go to bed. Working on homework at night has become a necessity, but it is pretty much impossible to fall asleep after thinking about finite difference schemes for three hours. Last night I actually had a dream about solving one of the homework problems ... it is sad! My dream solution wasn't even right - I tried it almost first thing this morning, so it was in no way a useful dream.
Anywho, I am getting close to one month to go until this hellacious semester is over. I honestly do not think I've ever worked this hard before ... and I really don't care to ever again (at least not at this salary!!). I feel slightly encouraged that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It is too bad that I am still quite a ways from defending my thesis. Even though I will need to work on research over winter break, I am excited about December because of the holidays and because I am going to San Francisco for the AGU meeting - and Chris is coming out there for 2-1/2 days and we are going to Napa Valley - yay! :)
The weather has been really nice here in the Fort but it is too bad that the mountains aren't getting much snow. I would love to go snowboarding sometime soon, but it's not worth the drive to ride in 20 inches of packed, man-made snow. I could do that in Georgia! Haha. I wish I could enjoy the nice weather more, I haven't ridden my road bike in well over a month!! I rode my mountain bike home on some of the foothills trails last week and had a lot of fun, but now it is dark by 5:00 so I can't really do that and get in a decent day's work. I am itching to do something outside though - one of these next weekends I will have to take some time off. Chris and I hiked at a new park outside of fort collins last Sunday and it was really nice. It's called Bobcat Ridge - we hiked a 4.5 mile trail that just winds along a valley in the foothills and it was very pretty. We hiked slow because I have been a little sick, but it was wonderful to be outside for a few hours. They have even more trails so maybe we can go back and mountain bike there before the snow starts to fall.
Well, I might try to post a picture or two from my life recently, but then I am off to bed! Goodnight. :)

Sportin'

Hello,

I am neglecting my work tonight, and it feels fabulous! I just had a really great weekend, though, and hate to get back into 12 hour work days quite yet. So, what made my weekend so wonderful? The freaking bulldogs, for one thing! That game against Florida was amazing, they played with so much heart. It's great to be a Georgia Bulldog!

And speaking of heart, how 'bout those Rockies? It has been so much fun watching them. 21 for 22, including 8 straight playoff wins, incredible! The past month and a half has brought back some great memories for me of the Braves' 91 playoff run. Unfortunately, both efforts ended in a World Series loss. But, Chris and I were at the game last night! We had a lot of fun, being at a World Series game is a rare opportunity. We got the tickets through a friend, Luke, who works for the Rockies. He did a drawing for them and we won! I guess it is also a big deal to get to watch a team sweep the series, especially an amazing team like the Red Sox (as much as I hate to admit it, the Sox are freaking good!). So, yay, I got to see Papelbon throw his glove about 30 feet into the air and do some strange squat-jump combination after striking out Seth Smith. But we were happy to be cheering on the Rockies.

All of this excitement about sports has me thinking ... why is being a fan so much fun? And just think, when else is it okay to do the following: throw yourself, ripping your jeans in the process, on the floor in a frenzy as Holliday slides face-first into home plate in a 13 inning do or die playoff game, or ... get lifted 3 feet into the air by your cousin after David Green throws a last-second touchdown pass to Veron Haynes to silence over 100,000 Tennessee fans, or ... just scream at the top of your lungs and jump up and down in public and it be perfectly ok?! Cheering on a team is just pure emotion ... it's just friggin' fun! Yeah, so now I'm done.
Of course I think participating in sports is fun, too, but who can really have more than maybe 10 people cheering for you at one time. Something about being in a big group of people all wanting the same thing is just fun.

That is basically my life the last couple of months - when I'm not working I'm either watching the Dawgs or the Rockies. I also got to see one of my best friend's, Laurie, get married last weekend in Georgia. That was wonderful, and it was so good to see her and our other friends.

So now that the Rockies season is over, I can start getting some more sleep. Also, yesterday at church the minister, Scott, was talking about committing time to God and service. I am tired of working so much and I think I need to reprioritize my time so not everything I do is for myself. I still need to work a lot but I also need to give myself some more time off and think outside of my own wants more often. I thought I would be closer to finishing my thesis by now and that made working my arse off worthwhile, but if I'm going not to be done any time soon anyway, then maybe I should work a little less and enjoy life more!

Anywho, that is enough rambling for now. Somehow, Chris and I are now watching 16 Candles. Haha. :) Goodnight!

Which Heroes Character Are You?
	You are part Hiro. You are everyones favorite Japanese tourist. Your time is well-managed and you make sure things get done. On top of that, the girls always want a second chance with you.
	You are part Peter. You're too sincere, but it works for you. Your family is very supportive despite your idealism.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Can I get an Amen!?

Honestly I thought this week was going to suck. I was dreading the start of the school year. I feel like I am taking on a lot - I want to defend my thesis (which is nowhere near done) by the end of October, I am taking a class that is so difficult that one of my very intelligent coworker's wife half-jokingly threatened divorce if he ever took another class like it, I am working about 10 hours a week on writing website content for the department, and I am still volunteering as editor of the AGU newsletter. So I literally thought my life was about to end last Sunday as I prepared to begin the semester.
But ... this has been a really great week! For one thing, I decided to take it easy while I still have the chance and before my class gets really busy. But also, a lot of really great things have happened this week. Most importantly, Chris got a job!! We are both so relieved - him more than me, I am sure. He was tired of being unemployed. He got laid off in January, but I have really been amazed by how well we have gotten along since then. I think it has tested our faith, but sometimes that was the only thing that kept me from completely stressing out. I feel very blessed - we have been okay financially, we have been able to go to Hawaii(!!) and Moab, and now Chris' new job is a step up from the old. So, thank you God!!
Another wonderful thing happened today (knock on wood) - my model is running! I have been very frustrated by it. Every week, I get myself psyched up to work hard and start getting results, but so far all I've gotten is a month's worth of -infinity for my simulated climate (temperature, rainfall, humidity, radiation, all of it crap!!). But this afternoon, as of 3:00 when I left school, the model was humming along quite happily. How wonderful!!!! I have been waiting for this moment all summer, and I think my frustration with the model has tainted my view of everything else - making things seem frustrating and overwhelming. Oh, please, let my results be reasonable so I can finally start doing earth science research and leave all this miserable computer science behind me!!
It has been a fun week for other reasons. On Saturday, Chris and I hiked up 13,911 ft. Mt Meeker with some of my friends from the department - Nick, Levi, and Matt. It was the hardest mountain I've climbed!! A mile of it was about as steep as you can get without needing ropes and climbing gear. It was tough, but the view at the top was amazing!! I also have had a few fun rides. On Tuesday, I competed in my first cyclocross race. This is kind of a mix between mountain and road ride (leaning toward more of the mountain side). I was the only one in my division and it was really hard and hot (96!), but I had a good time and would like to do it again. I even got tips from Georgia Gould, who won the women's pro national mountain bike series this year and came in 1st in every race in the series!! I also rode yesterday and had a great time. It is so nice to ride when I don't feel like I have to do anything for anyone other than myself.
Well ... I am encouraged by how well the last few days have gone. I hope I can continue to be productive without overdoing it.
I think I should go to sleep now. Chris and I went to a party tonight. It was at the house of some of my fellow grad students - in the class below mine. It was entertaining. Lots of drinking. We don't go to parties where people do keg stands, but I guess it's fun every now and then (we didn't of course, yuck!). Well, of course I did enjoy a few drinks ... which is why I would now like to go to sleep. Drinking used to make me want to act crazy, now it just makes me want to sleep! :) Goodnight!

Flash Flood!

It doesn't rain very often here in the Fort. So 3-5 inches in 2 hours seems like quite a lot! I'll start at the beginning ... I stayed at work until 7:00 tonight and was going to ride my bike home. It was sprinkling a little when it was time to go, but I talked to Chris and he said it was pouring at home - just 3.5 miles away. When I went outside, I saw basically a wall of rain and lightening about 2 miles from my department.
Luckily, my husband loves me and came to pick me up. We enjoyed dinner with our whole house shaking every time it thundered as the storm moved right over us. It is just kind of rare for us to get severe storms on the west side of Fort Collins, so we were kind of excited. We decided to drive around and look at the effects of what the NWS called a 100 year flood.
Mainly we saw the Spring Creek, it went way beyond its banks in several spots. There is a trail that follows the creek and I have no idea how deep below the water that trail was but there was no sign of it. There were a few places where the water was about mid-calf level in the roads. Chris got out and helped a girl push her broken-down car out of one flooded area.
Oh, in the picture notice my 2nd favorite bagel place in the background. I was planning on going there tomorrow morning, should be interesting!
It is still raining at our house but very lightly. Our yard is very soggy and there is a pond in the green space behind our house, but we are safe from any flooding. Apparently our house is on a 1000 year flood plain, phew! I probably would not find all of this so interesting if it rained more often here, or if I were not a weather geek.
Anywho, time for bed. Goodnight!

Triathlon for a cause and other events

I shouldn't write for too long because I am waking up at 5 AM!!! Rachel and I are doing a practice run of a triathlon, in training for the Tri for a Cure race in about 10 days. It should be fun as long as I actually wake up. And hopefully I can still get some work done tomorrow, I'll have to not go too hard.
I am pretty excited about this race because we are raising money for breast cancer research and support for women with breast cancer. It's nice to be doing a race that means something. I think it will be a powerful experience. There are 3,000 women participating, so it will by far be my largest triathlon. If you want to donate, visit http://www.active.com/donate/triforthecure07/atmos.

On Monday, we sent an email to some friends and family, as well as to the atmos department. Our goal was $500 and we surpassed it in 6 hours!!! I was so amazed, but I guess it just goes to show you how many people have been affected by breast cancer. My grandmother lost her battle on Sept. 13, 2001 (an unfortunately easy date to remember), about 2 years after being diagnosed. I have been and will be thinking of her a lot during the next few weeks.
Anyway ... on the brighter side I have great news! I got my model to run for a day! Results!!! Yes!!!! Well, they are not very exciting results because I ultimately want to run it for several years, but this is a big step.
And the bad news ... drugs in cycling. Three of the top 10 have now been dismissed from the Tour de France because of doping allegations. Plus my favorite before the race began, Alexander Vinokorouv. It's so disappointing because I admire these guys so much. They really capture my heart with their courage and determination, but then I feel cheated just as much as their competitors when I learn they did drugs. When I'm racing, I work my ass of to ride like I do (which isn't very good) and would never consider putting drugs or someone else's blood in my body (it just doesn't seem smart/healthy for one thing) ... why can't they do the same? I hate it. I hope the sport cleans up. This tour has been exciting but now ... grrr.

I am excited about this weekend. I am going to Georgia and Tennessee for several big events. The main reason is to see my one of my best friends, Kristi, as she makes her first profession of vows to become a nun. She is through 2 out of 7 years in the process. It is an amazing process, I can't believe she's already been there for two years. Sometimes it seems a little strange to me but I think she's very happy with her life, and I admire the commitment she has made. I just don't completely understand it, I am so happy being married, but giving your life to God can't be a bad thing (as long as you're not a freaking suicidal zealot). Oh yeah, I'm rambling ... the other things I'll be doing this weekend are: seeing my cousin, Patrick, and his two year old daughter (it's her birthday), seeing my other cousin, Crissie, and her newborn son (due today, I need to call!), attending another good friend's bridal shower, and seeing a lot of other wonderful friends and family. It will be busy, as all trips back to Georgia are, but I am excited about it.

Ok I should go to sleep now for sure. 6 hours of sleep is about the bare minimum I can get. Good night!

Montgomery Pass

Ah ... TGIF. A lot has happened since my last entry! My mom and stepdad, Jim, came to visit us last week. We had a good time exploring Colorado. I was very impressed with both of them - we had a busy, active week. Jim had a small heart attack last year, and it is great to see him being active. He arrived on Tuesday night, on by Thursday afternoon was hiking 6.5 miles at 10,000 feet in Rocky Mtn. NP. My mom completed a tough hike up the west side of Montgomery Pass earlier in the week. Good stuff!

The hike with my mom was part of an overnight trip to the Upper Montgomery Pass yurt (operated by Never Summer Nordic). We stayed there Monday night. On the way up, we ventured along Long Draw Road, on the eastern side of Camerron Pass. We saw 8 moose!!! The coolest sighting was our first - 3 males hanging out in Trap Lake. We also saw a baby, probably just a few months old. It was so cute! We arrived at the yurt around 6 PM and it was literally 110 degrees in the Yurt! So we hung out on the porch overlooking a valley and the Mt. Zirkel range to the west. The 12,000+ foot mountains that rise from Montgomery Pass were to our right. It was a great view. The sunset was phenomenal, we could actually see the sun go all the way down, as it sank slowly behind the far off mountains.

The hike to Montgomery Pass is kind of hard because it's on a 4 wheel drive road, which tends to have less switchbacks than a trail. But it was well worth the ascent to see the glory of the meadows at the pass. The air was fragrant from the abundant wildflowers. It was amazing. Chris and I daydreamed of hiking along the ridgeline that goes from Camerron Pass to where we were and then on and on for miles into Wyoming and beyond. It will be a good trip sometime (soon, hopefully!).

That is probably enough writing for now. It is about 12:25 AM and I am waking up at 6:00 to ride with Christine (I'm getting up early so I can eat breakfast and have coffee, we aren't riding until 7:30). But there is more to come ... 4th of July party and watching fireworks in 4 different cities at once ... a good, wet hike in RMNP ... the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and hanging our feet off a 2300 foot cliff ... rafting on the Arkansas ... etc etc. I feel so fortunate that for Chris and I, the vacation in Colorado never ends. :)

Anatomy and Physiology 101

In today's class, we'll discuss the patella. This little bone that floats around magically around your knee is connected to tibia via the Patellar Tendon. This tendon is pretty sturdy, but doesn't really like being hit by a road sign at speeds in excess of, say, 5 miles per hour. If you were to hit said sign at something like 30 miles per hour in an acrobatic move that would make Sasha Cohen jealous, you would probably suffer post-traumatic patellar tendinitis. You also might invent a new olympic sport that is some combination of gymnastics and cycling.
...
Anyway, this is what my diagnosis is for my knee. It sounds bad (especially because it has 4 words), but apparently it will heal with time. Ironically, the doctor I saw today recommended cycling as a way to strengthen the muscles and ligaments etc around my knee. Super!! The swelling below my knee is from trauma to the lateral collateral ligament. He said it may take up to 3 months for the swelling to go down. But basically, I am okay, and I can keep riding and hiking and swimming (maybe avoiding breast stroke) at a not too intense pace.

:)

Backcountry Bliss - Sawmill Trail, Rawah's, CO

Chris and I had a nice weekend in the mountains. We needed a weekend for just the two of us, away from the house (if I had spent the weekend at home, relaxing would have been out of the question. I would have ridden my bike, worked in the yard, cleaned, worked on the newsletter, etc etc). We had very vague goals for this backpacking trip - 1. to be outside and 2. to not be in Ft Collins, where the highs were in the high 90's. We didn't really care where we were going, except I didn't want to too far from a trailhead because of my knee, just in case it gave me any problems.

So we decided on Sawmill Trail, just east of Cameron Pass, in the popular Rawah mountains. On our crappy map, the trail split about 2 miles in and then both branches ended. But it also seemed to get close to treeline, promising great views. We parked at the Blue Lake trailhead, there were close to 10 cars there already, but our trail started farther west on Hwy. 14. That worked in our favor - there was only one car parked there and we only saw 2 other people the whole time we were out there.

The trail was actually an old logging road. It was nice to be on a wide trail where Chris and I could walk side by side. We wound through a lodgepole pine forest, with a mix of old trees, young saplings, and bare stumps from the logging days. It was kind of sad to see all the trees that had been cut down, but it was also neat to witness the regrowth of a forest. The trail was in some spots covered in wildflowers. I tried to give some flowers names so I could identify them with my wildflower book that I left at home. I gave them names like 'rocky mountain honeysuckle' and 'buttercups', Chris opted for names like 'stardrops of death' and 'pixie farts'. In any case, they were beautiful and there were also an abundance of orange and black butterflies. We also saw a ton of moose and elk tracks, and a couple mountain lion tracks!

We had to cross a stream along the way that was FREEZING!!! I think it was the coldest water I've ever been in. It got above my knees and seemed to take forever to wade across. But it was a bit of a thrill, too, especially coming back across the stream early this morning when there was still a bit of a chill in the air. Our campsite last night was right next to Sawmill Creek. There were a lot of mosquitoes so we built a fire and relaxed for several hours with nothing to do. It was perfect. As we ate dinner, a young male moose wandered into the brush across the creek from us. It was very cool but made us both a bit nervous after our encounter with some aggressive moose last July. My sleep last night was interrupted by numerous nightmares involving charging moose.

We wandered around some more today and were rewarded with stupendous views of the 12,000+ feet mountains to our west and the towering peaks in North Park (literally the northern part of Rocky Mtn National Park) to our south. It was a lovely day.

The drive back through the Poudre Canyon was tortuously hot in Chris' non-AC'ed truck. Finally it got to be too much, so we pulled over and jumped in the river. It was fun and so refreshing. We had to drive home in wet clothes, but that actually felt really good!

This weekend was good for me. Hopefully I can refocus and work hard this week without feeling burnt out by the end of it. That's how last week went, I was exhausted by Thursday evening and didn't want to do anything but sit on the couch. Tonight Chris and I have done some cleaning and grocery shopping, and we made a delicious meal - salad, onion rings (yum!), and green chile/monteray jack cheese buffalo burgers, and I made a coffee cheesecake type concoction that is still chilling ... guess we'll eat it tomorrow.

Oh yeah, my knee felt pretty good this weekend. Chris was very kind and carried almost all of our stuff in his backpack, so I just had my clothes in a daypack. I have an appointment with an orthopedic doctor on Tuesday, just to get it checked out. It's not the joint that hurts as much as the bone right below my knee (tibia?), it still has a bump on it.

Well, seeing as how I am now rambling, I'll sign out for the night. Thanks for reading!
:)

I have a case of the Mondays ...

Good morning. I'm sitting here eating my delicious oatmeal (aka - overly-thick slop). It's not too bad, but I got sick yesterday so I want to take my time eating it to make sure it all stays in my belly. Nice way to start the week ... I'll tell that story at the end - if you want a good laugh at my expense you can just skip to the last few paragraphs.

We're in the dog days of summer out here (whatever that means). The weeks are flying by - June is already half way through! Last week was just another week, nothing too special. We bought life insurance on Friday, that was an important but not very thrilling step in our lives. The newsletter I edit for AGU's (the American Geophysical Union) atmospheric science section came out after about 6 months of editing and waiting for the bureaucratic tape to clear. That provided me with some satisfaction.

Thursday and Friday evenings we cleaned the rocks we had moved to the front yard - they had a lot of dirt on them and dirt = weeds. Although we have moved and cleaned close to 20 wheelbarrow's full of dirt, I think we still need about 4 more. Boo. But it looks much better!

Saturday we went with Jeramy and a friend of mine from the cycling team, Beth, to Lory State Park, which is right outside of the Fort. There is a new dirt jump park there for bikers. I'm not into that personally, but it's fun to watch. It was the grand opening so there were demos and give-aways. We also did some riding, I rode for a couple hours, mostly with Beth. We rode up a service road that is infamous for it's relentlessly steep pitch. It was kind of (REALLY) hot - Beth started getting the chills - so we stopped a lot and turned off onto a side trail early instead of forcing ourselves to go to the top.

The rest of the day was spent vegetating inside, and cleaning and mowing the lawn. But it was a good day for Chris and I, pretty much a perfect combination of fun, relaxation, and productivity.

Sunday we slept in and then rode our bikes to church. It was getting hot and the high ended up at 99!! We worked in the yard for a couple of hours and then rode our bikes over to Jeramy and Christine's for a cookout. There was a good group there - Victor and Marcy (their friends), Dave (also their friend but now ours via Steamboat), Matt, Beth, Rob, and Mollie (from our Bible study group). I had been looking forward to it. Good food with good friends, and I had a growler of beer in my bag (basically a jug of beer you can get filled up at the breweries in town, it's about the equivalent of a 6 pack but cheaper and fresher).

I was kind of grouchy by the time we got there because of the heat. Then I felt tired and thought a coke would do the trick. Then, after munching on some broccoli, I started feeling nauseous. Christine gave me an alkaselzer, which was so gross I almost threw up right there. So I laid down on their couch for a while, feeling gross and wiped out. Finally I decided to go to the bathroom and just see what happened. I hung out in there for a while with no effect. I flushed the toilet and it was kind of slow. I just wanted to go lay down again - but then the toilet overflowed!! Great. I quickly opened the top and grabbed the little stopper thing. Now I was stuck, standing in toilet water, feeling like I was going to be sick, and yelling for someone to come help. It was stupid. Why do things like this seem to happen to me? Finally Chris came in and Jeramy found a plunger and we fixed everything and cleaned up. Geez. I think people may have gotten the impression that something that came out of me had clogged the toilet, but it was just my bad luck. But I was too tired to set the record straight. Like I said, they're good friends and were being understanding and sympathetic, but it's still a little embarrassing. I told Chris that I wanted to go home, and he borrowed Dave's truck to drive me (so much for saving the environment with our bike ride).

I spent the rest of the evening on the couch, and I finally threw up, which helped a bit. It sucked. Oh yeah, and we were supposed to have a doctor's appointment this morning to show how healthy we are so we can get the life insurance. I had to cancel that.

The only thing I can figure is I got overheated, which is weird because I've done more intense things in the heat before. But I didn't eat much Sunday, so I doubt it was something I ate. Who knows. At least now I feel better and in the past 30 minutes I've eaten half my oatmeal. Way to go me!

Well, time to go to work. Joy! I really like summer, I don't mind that days pass with nothing eventful happening. I like the long days and extra hours of sunlight to play outside. I like the laid-back attitude that's bound to infect a college town when the deadlines and class schedules cease and 30,000 of it's most rambunctious inhabitants take a temporary leave of absence. And I even like what I do for "work" ... it's just that one thing stays pretty much the same regardless of season - Mondays suck!

Hope yours isn't too bad. Thanks for reading and have a good week! :)

PS

My dear husband pointed out a slight inaccuracy in my recap of the 24 hour race. I also pointed out to him that this is my journal and I'll write what I want. But, since he most definitely kicked butt this weekend, I'll respect his wishes this time and correct myself - He killed me on the hill and climbed like a freaking pro. Here is a loving email from him regarding this subject:

"Your blog does not adequately describe how I took it to you on the climb.
Easliy kept up...sure you did. And what about the fact that I never got out
of breath while you were panting away? Bring it on roadie!"

Oh, I'll bring it on, all right! Needless to say, this email has spurred me to add a few hill repeats to my workout plan this week, and next time we ride, we'll see who's leaving who.

I'm not sure if this constitutes a healthy marriage or not, but we sure are having fun. :)

24+ Hours of Insanity!!

It is amazing what the human body can accomplish and what new definitions we can put on the word "possible" when we push ourselves. This weekend, Chris competed in an insane event with 3 friends, Jeramy, Dave, and Josh - 24 Hours of Steamboat. Starting at noon yesterday, they took turns riding an 11 mile course, consisting basically of 5.5 miles of grueling uphill and 5.5 miles of fast, fun singletrack. Each lap had 2500 ft of vertical gain! The goal was for each rider to do 4 laps, that's 44 miles and nearly 2 miles of climbing each! Chris was the 3rd rider to go. His first lap was good and he felt really strong, although pretty nervous about what he had gotten himself into. The weather was HOT, but pleasant.

By about 9 the course was dark. You could make out dots of light as riders made their way to the start/finish. It was surreal. The first round of laps went well for the guys. Round two would be more eventful. Jeramy, the first rider, cramped up partway down the downhill and had to spend nearly an hour replenishing his electrolytes supply and getting a massage until he felt slightly better.

Dave was next, and was expected to finish around 9:30. We waited at the start/finish for Dave until 9:50, growing more worried by the minute. Eventually, we saw a pair of lights bobbing toward us - someone running, not riding. "Please don't be Dave, please don't be Dave", Chris muttered ... but to no avail. Dave had completely ripped his rear derailleur off, losing his chain and busting his rear wheel in the process. It happened at the top of the course, and so he had basically coasted and ran the final 5.5 miles back to us. We were glad he was okay, but concerned about his bike. Luckily, Dave is a bike whiz. He just happened to have a spare everything, and within an hour had his bike ready to go for lap 3.

Meanwhile, Josh's wife, Karen, had kind of vanished. She left for a long (15 mile!) run shortly after noon and it was now after 10. She had called Josh around 8 to say she had gotten lost, but hitched a ride with a nice woman who was driving her back to her car. That was the last we'd heard and Josh couldn't get in touch with her. He had to get ready for his next lap but he had to be severely distracted. Christine (Jeramy's wife) and I got Karen's vehicle information and left on an impossible mission to find her car ... all we knew was it was at a trailhead. Do you know how many trailheads there are around Steamboat?? Thankfully, she called Josh right after we left and said she was on her way back. Her 15 mile run had turned into a 30 miler and she was exhausted and dehydrated, but okay. Whew!!

By now I was pretty exhausted. I had ridden my mountain bike for a heavenly 3+ hours earlier and didn't have time for much of a dinner in all the excitement of the evening. I went down to wait for Chris to finish his 2nd lap, with his recovery drink and extra layers. I was nervous for him because this was his first night ride. After about 1:45, he came flying into the start/finish. "How was it?" I asked, tentatively. He was grinning ear to ear. "It was AWESOME!!", he shouted, drawing lots of happy glances our way. Well, I guess he had a good time! He was all jacked up on adrenaline. And Karen had made it back in time to see Josh off, so things were looking up.

I helped Chris get some things together back at our trailer and then went to bed just after midnight. Jeramy got up shortly after we hit the sack for his 3rd lap. We were all anxious for him, hoping his cramps were gone. Well, a few minutes after he left the trailer I heard a loud, "Owwwww!!!!". Jeramy toughed out that lap, cramping most of the way. While Chris and I slept, Dave left for his 3rd on his newly fixed bike.

At 2:45, Chris woke me up. He had to eat to get fueled up for his next ride, and I had to check in for a shift at the top aid station I had volunteered for from 3:30 to 8 AM - what was I thinking?? I met up with my fellow volunteer, Brian, and we were driven up to the aid station, passing many riders on the way up, suffering in the darkness. Our job at the aid station was simple - write down riders' numbers and times, offer food and water, and cheer them on as they summited the insane climb.

Not too long after I showed up, Dave passed, feeling good and with a functional bike - good news! He was happy to have a familiar face cheering him on. By about 4:30, we could make out a faint glow behind the mountains. The riders' long slog in darkness was almost over. This was a tough time for many of the riders, both physically and psychologically. Although Chris was on a 4-man team, there were many ways to compete, including solo! It is beyond my comprehension how the solo riders were able to do what they did. The winning solo man rode 16+ laps (176 miles!!!!!!!) and consistently had lap times under 1:40. The winning woman rode 10 laps, that's still a lot! The 2nd place woman "only" rode 8 laps, but she also had a stroke last year. These people are amazing.

Finally the sun came up. Dawn was beautiful. The Yampa River valley spread out below us and it seemed we could see forever. As the sun came up, birds began chirping and riders' spirits picked up - it was going to be a good day! Chris arrived around 6 AM, feeling good and actually a little disappointed to not be riding in the dark. He was psyched, although a little angry when I suggested he try a new carbohydrate gel that turned out to be gross. He set off flying down the singletrack.

Because of Jeramy's cramps, he took himself out of the race. The team turned to Josh, the ultrarunner, to do 2 laps in a row to make up for it. What a feat! He rode from 6:44-8:24 and then from 8:24-10:30, almost 4 hours of riding straight!

I came back to our trailer around 8:45 and the mood was relaxed. Jeramy and Dave were done, and Chris was actually excited to start his 4th lap. The team had pulled together when necessary, supported each other, and so far achieved its primary goal - to have fun. Chris was a little worried about bonking though, and I decided to come along to keep him company. Unfortunately, this was a last minute decision. I hadn't drank very much in the 6 hours since waking up and had just eaten half of a breakfast burrito. I was about to find out if sausage, sour cream, green chile, and beans make good pedaling fuel! But I was riding for the sheer joy of it. Watching so many exuberant bikers pedal by the aid station had made me yearn for a ride of my own. Besides, Chris had been riding all night and I had semi-fresh legs, it would be no problem.

Hah. Chris' blazing 3.7 mph pace up the mountain felt agonizing to me, but I stayed with him and we chatted and encouraged each other on the flatter sections. Every now and then I would sing the refrain to some random song - "I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike." After about 45 minutes I had a gel and immediately felt the effects. I was easily keeping up with Chris until my hamstring suddenly cramped up. Well, that was the end of that, I got off and walked as Chris hauled it to the top. I was so impressed by his stamina and strength. This was a huge accomplishment! He finished in 1:38, his second fastest time, still feeling good and loving life. Meanwhile, my cramps subsided and I had a blast on the rolling downhill. What a fun course, and so beautiful, winding through mixed lodgepole pine/aspen forests, and across wildflower-speckled meadows with infinite views of valleys and mountains. I finished about 5 minutes behind Chris, not too shabby.

So, now we are back home, somehow still awake, although probably not for long. This was a great event. There was so much energy in the people there, and it was cool to see the range of competitors - from awe-inspiring performances like the 16 lap solo effort, to the guys and gals out there just living life to the fullest and loving every pedal stroke, it was truly a 24 hours to remember!

I'll attach a picture of Chris, Dave, and Jeramy on a practice run over Memorial Day weekend. Hopefully I can put more pictures on shutterfly soon.

2 useless things: weeds & dead computers

Okay, first let me say that having a blog is no good when you can't remember your username. That's a kind of essential first step.

Anyway, now that that's taken care of let me say hello and thanks for reading! It is a little odd that I am writing in the middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday, but my hard drive on my school computer died, so I am finding it hard to get re-motivated to work from home. This is the 3rd problem I've had with this computer (iMac G5 - looks cool but doesn't work so well, apparently) and so I hope my advisor will buy me a whole new computer instead of just a new hard drive.

Chris and I were busy last weekend working on various home projects. He helped our friends, Erica and Tim (Erica is my officemate), get ready to tile their bathroom. Which is very nice of him, but left me to do landscaping basically by myself. I weeded for hours, pruned rose bushes, laid down weed-proof fabric around our huge pine tree and in the island in our front yard (with some help from Chris), moved mulch from said island to the perimeter of the pine tree, cut branches off the pine tree b/c it was dropping pollen down my clothes, and attempted to move rock from our backyard to the island ... only to find out our wheelbarrow has a flat tire. We are remedying that and will recommence with the rock-transport tonight. When we are done, I think it will look very nice.

If you haven't been to our house yet, we have a pretty big backyard but about 1/3 of it is covered by rocks. And since we try to pretend that that part of the yard doesn't exist, a multitude of weeds grow every summer in the rocks. Last summer, one weed named Horace grew to be 8-9 feet tall. So this landscaping project will serve 2 purposes: 1. improve the look of our front yard, and 2. help us in the never-ending quest to rid our backyard of weed-infested rocks. I want to put a bench under the pine tree, from there you could enjoy the shade, a glass of sweet tea (or a beer), and the view of Ft. Collin's famous Horsetooth Rock - a strangely shaped rock formation atop one of the foothills west of town. The sunsets over the foothills can be spectacular, so that would be nice. Hopefully it will be a calm afternoon so pollen won't fall on you.

The best ride ...

Some of you haven't heard yet about my crazy crash at collegiate cycling nationals. Tomorrow, it will be 3 weeks since my attempt to defy gravity. So here's what happened ...

I arrived with my teammates from CSU in Lawrence, Kansas early early Wednesday morning, May 11. After a few hours of beauty rest, we set out for the team time trial (TTT) course. Last year, we came in 8th, but we've been working very hard all spring on this event. We did an easy practice loop and then went all out to get our splits and see what kind of time to expect.
We were flying! Zooming down a slight downhill toward the finish, we were on pace to finish 2-3 minutes faster than last year's winning time! Until ... I was in the back of the 4-woman group and wasn't watching the road. Going about 30-35 mph, I hit a 2x4 in the road and went catapulting out of the aero bars and off my bike. I hit a mile marker sign with my knee and spun into the ditch on the side of the road, landing so hard my shoe flew off and my helmet cracked. Ouch. It was really scary.

I feel very blessed that nothing was seriously damaged. My coach, Andy, cleaned out my wounds and actually cut some dead skin off my knee, and I had some female-bonding with my teammate, Lila, who hung out in the bathroom while I showered to make sure I didn't pass out. Later, I went to the ER with Andy and learned that I didn't have a concussion, broken
bones, or torn ACL. Whew!!

I still raced in the TTT. I bet we could have gone faster if I wasn't gimpy and fighting off images of the crash during our race, but we came in a respectable 6th place. My teammates were super supportive and I was happy and proud to be racing with them.

Since then, I've been taking it easy. The last few weeks, I've been yearning to go on long rides but I've wanted to be sure that my knee is okay. I want to be riding and hiking when I'm 80, after all. It's healing well but still doesn't look quite right - there's a lump on the right side of it. Finally, I put it to the test last weekend on a trip to Steamboat Springs with Chris and some of our friends (Jeramy, Christine, and Dave).

On Saturday, Chris and I rode 45 miles and I felt really good. Maybe a little out of shape from my weeks off, but I couldn't stop grinning on our ride. Riding with Chris is fun, we always have a great time. I decided to really test myself and go for a 65 mile ride on Sunday - my longest solo ride yet! I set out not sure what to expect but excited by the clear skies, still flags (no headwind!), and wonderful 70 degree weather.

This was one of the most beautiful rides I've ever been on. I have to give credit to the Ski Haus, their website suggested the ride (http://www.skihaussteamboat.com/Biking%20in%20Steamboat.html - see Where to Ride - Road - Twentymile Road). I had a smile pasted to my face for most of it, even when I felt tired. The beauty was one thing, but the sheer relief that I can still ride my bike was enormous.

I have a confession - I love Chris very much, but I have another love, an intense passion for riding my bike. It is so freeing, exhilarating, and beautiful. Nothing beats riding down a quiet county road, while taking in the majestic scenery all around you. I love the physical aspect of it, too, the adrenaline is intense! And when that competitive side of me kicks in - watch out because I'd rather make myself sick from exertion than just watch you ride away from me.

Um, anyway, I was so happy to be riding my bike again. One of the most beautiful scenes was pedaling through some meadows with mountains on all sides of me. Not huge, snow-capped peaks, but big, strong, rolling hills and foothills. The meadows boasted the most vibrant green I have ever seen. And above was a cirrus cloud that was catching the sun just right, so that the whole cloud was transformed into a rainbow. Incredible!

How can I not love riding in Colorado? ... You should come join me some day!
:)

Welcome

Hello,
thanks for visiting my blog. Actually, this is more of an online journal than a blog. Through my high school years, I was really good about journaling. Lately I haven't been as in to it, but I'm a little sad about that. Journaling is a great way to remember wonderful events, to sort out feelings, to get organized, and to reflect on life. I keep trying to get back into it, but I fail. So, I thought I'd try this. If I tell myself people might read this, I'll put a little more effort in it and try to keep it entertaining.
Anyway, if no one ever reads these entries, that will be okay. But, if you are reading my posts, please feel free to add comments and stories from your own life, that would be fun! Hopefully, this can also help me keep the people I love back home in Georgia informed and entertained by all the crazy things Chris and I are up to out here in Colorado.
:)