10-22-09

Cleaned house today. Floors, bathrooms, stairs, baseboards, dusting,
and organizing. Even hung a painting. Now to keep it this way. Hrmph.

10-21-09

Traveled all day. Almost missed flight #1. Missed flight #2. Took a
taxi from Cincinnati to Lexington where luggage was waiting. Hard day.

10-20-09

Snuggled up on the couch with Buddy reading a book. He has the well-loved Wubbanub in his mouth and Lambie in his arms. Reminds me of Squirt so much....

Playing in the back yard with Buddy and my b-i-l. We had a good day.
It will be sad to leave tomorrow.

10-19-09

My nephew Buddy at a park today. Isn't he so cute? I am enjoying my
California vacation yet managed today to finish a paper I've been
writing for two months. During Buddy's afternoon nap I found two
precious hours needed to complete it. Now to polish it and get it
submitted to a journal.

10-18-09

My pregnant sister. Beautiful! We spent the day playing with Buddy,
her 15 month old. I enjoyed going to church with them this morning.
Had a great dinner with friends and in-law family.

10-17-09

After the workshop I took a train from San Diego to Van Nuys to visit
my sister Sakura and her family. OK, Sakura is not her real name. I
arrived around 8:30 pm. Here is a picture of the coast taken from the
train window.

10-15-09

Hartsfield International Airport (Atlanta) and I am waiting for my
flight to San Diego where I am giving a workshop tomorrow. The
workshop is to train teachers around the country to use the penguin
curriculum I developed.

10-14-09

Back from our tour of western Virginia. My "real" camera is broken and until I get it fixed, the iPhone camera will just have to do. I think it takes pretty sweet photos. This is a photo of the cold Kentucky rain we had today, viewed from inside my warm cozy house.

10-12-09

Worked at Panera all morning then lunched at Bodos. Shopped for jeans
in the afternoon at a little boutique called Penelope- and met LJ's
mom who worked there. Also got three charms to add to my Virginia
bracelet gift from Lizanne, my life long friend. I got an apple, a penguin,
and a crab. Guess why? Tonight we will sleep in our own bed. I miss
Lexington.

10-11-09

In Charlottesville we went out to dinner with our good friends F and T
who have a brand new purple Honda Fit, just the car and color I covet.
Blue is a good color, don't get me wrong- but Purple!!!! We are
staying with K and M tonight. Tomorrow we work. It's not so bad being
back here after all.

10-10-09

Walking through campus to dinner in downtown H-burg. Our favorite
restaurant had a two hour+ wait so we had sammiches at a coffee house
and it was perfect. I helped Aza plan a science lesson, we three
talked to the Squirt on the phone who was camping at the top of a
waterfall in Colorado, then watched a sweet movie. Tomorrow--- Cville.

10-9-09

We found Aza in an Arby's!!!! So good to see my girl.

10-9-09

Lovely day in Blacksburg. I didn't realize how much I liked that town.
Workshop went wonderfully. Dinner at Gillie's.

10-8-09 evening

I said, I sure wish we could find a Panera Bread somewhere out here.
Sure enough we found one and had a relaxing dinner waiting for the
storm to pass. Safe tonight in Blacksburg Virginia.

10-8-09 afternoon

Driving rain in West Virginia headed over the mountains. My iPhone
told me we were going WITH the storm so we looked for a place to stop
and let it get ahead of us.

10-8-09 morning

Walking to school this morning, beautiful and sunny and cool. Worked
till 2 or so then headed home on the bus in the rain. Dan met me on my
walk home from the bus stop with an umbrella. Sweet man.

10-6-09

On my walk home today- men leaving their jobs at the construction site of the new hospital addition. I've been walking 2.6 miles to school or from school with the bus taking care of the other trip. I love it.

10-5-09

Examine this photo carefully. There is a hidden message! Be the first to correctly decipher the meaning of this photo taken in central Kentucky.

10-4-09

I bought this chair a month ago or so and the seat was covered in some funky fabric. The chair is English 1890 or so the antique dealer said. I love it- it's so unique and comfortable to sit in. Today I recovered the seat with a chintz that goes well with the couch and accentuates the wood. The chair reminds me of music. Maybe it's a Musical Chair!

10-3-09

Dan managed to drag me away from my incessant grading to visit our state capital. Here is the Capitol building. Could someone please tell me why capital and capitol are two different words?

We went on a walking tour of town and I saw all these surprise crocuses (Autumn crocuses) in the grass so I lay down and took a cool photo of them.

While we were up on the bluff overlooking the Kentucky River, I took some cool photos of a bird. We had a great time touring Frankfort, Kentucky. What a neat town!

10-2-09

Here are my students getting ready for class. I see someone checking her iPhone! I have a cool classroom to teach in. It's crowded, but we make do.

10-1-09

This is where I live. Basically. In room 113. All I do is work work work.

9-28-09

Really cool sky at 7:45pm in the Whole Foods parking lot reflected on
the car roof. It was a good day. Crisp, cool, nice walk home from a
productive day at the office. Missing my children so much today.

9-26-09

We have company this weekend: siblings-in-law from Wisconsin! Here they are with Frisbee and Dan in the arboretum this afternoon before the football game. We didn't go, but it was fun to see all the tailgaters.

9-25-09

Went to the Manhatten Film Festival last night. Doctor, shopping, and
cleaning and grading papers today. Busy busy working.

9-24-09

Fossil concretion I found in Maysville, Kentucky. Busy busy working.

9-20-09

Got up early this morning to hit the road. This is the lodge where we stayed. Fall is happening a little bit there. We went on a fossil hunting trip with the geologist from Ohio State and we had the most fantastic time. It was raining, but I wore Dan's hiking clothes and had an umbrella. We got so many cool fossils. I will photograph them and post later.

9-19-09

Today I gave my presentation at the conference and it was well received. Afterwards I listened to a geology talk by a geologist and this is a photo of some trace fossils left behind by zoophychus or something like that.

I got a migraine in the afternoon but after a while was well enough to go into Portsmouth for dinner. We saw a cool cable-stayed bridge (my favorite) and the sunset over the Ohio River.

The coolest thing about this town is the amazing murals painted all along the flood wall. They were simply amazing works of art. I took photos until it got too dark. We had dinner at a brewery.

9-18-09

Today we got off to a late start due to a flat tire. We headed north and passed through Maysville, Kentucky. Had lunch in a nice restaurant there which had George Clooney photos all over the walls. We crossed over the Ohio River and entered Ohio. The bluffs on either side of the river reminded me of the Blue Ridge. Very pretty.

I tried to take some moving pictures on the drive but they came out funny. I though it was very interesting how this barn got in the way of the field I was trying to photograph and the barn came out all warped.

We got to the conference and checked into our hotel room and I got a good night's sleep.