1-22-10

I love my house. I love my yard and all the many various plants in it. I love each room, every moment I spend here. I love my neighborhood, my neighbors, and the arboretum a short block away. Today I noticed that some bulbs are coming up in the front- different kinds in different sections all over. What will this one be? What a joy it will be to discover all the plants here just waiting to spring forth. This weekend I should do some yard preparation for spring- make room for the bulbs and remove the wilted foliage all around.

I keep on having dreams that we have to move. It's happened three times now and each time it's a terrible dream. The rooms are empty, the house has no soul. We have to say good bye and each time, we move somewhere I'm not happy. Not sure what it all means but I think I really need to carve out some time to paint, some time to garden, and some time to nest here.

1-20-10

Home from my trip to California, back at work. My husband has taken to bread baking. Tonight he made rye bread!

1-18-10

Flying across the country on today, Aza's 22nd birthday.

1-17-10

Woke up this morning at 6:20am to a crying toddler in his crib. Went and patted his head, but he wanted up. I picked him up in the dark and rocked him for a while then he decided to look and see who was holding him. He touched my nose. I said, "Aunt Chrissy" and he smiled and put his head back on my shoulder. Warmed my heart like you wouldn't believe.

This is baby Fozzie Bear below. Today we had a busy day going to our cousin's baby shower and seeing our aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandmother. I made Fozzie's baby announcement this evening using the photo below and ordered 50 copies for my sister to send out. I leave in the morning for Kentucky and will miss these little angels.

1-16-10

At every conference I get someone to take a picture of me and Igor, my friend from grad school. My how we have aged since our first conference photo back in 2005. OK, I've aged. OK, my chin has aged. So today a Harley gathering rolled into town and all the sessions I attended were serenaded by the low frequency hum of motorcycles. What a pain! Here is a view of some of them from my 24th floor hotel room. Tonight I fly to see my sister Sakura in LA-- along with her husband JL and children Buddy and Fozzie Bear. Photos of beautiful babies to follow!

1-15-10

Woke up in Sacramento in time to see the sunrise. Pretty cool. I gave my paper- all went well there- and later in the afternoon took a walking tour of the city. Below is the state capitol building...

This is tower bridge over the river, whatever river it is...

And a close-up of me standing next to Tower Bride. Photo courtesy of Jen. Jen and Igor and I went out for dinner and our favorite thing was the pesto french fries. Mmmm...mmmm
What really amazes me about Sacramento is that even though it's at the 37th parallel, it has oranges growing on trees and roses blooming. In January. Amazing.

1-14-10

Taught my first class of the semester this morning and got the sense
that it went really well. Afterwards hopped on a plane to California
to give a paper at a conference. This is a picture I took for Squirt-
it's a view of a National Forest in Arizona. He's quite interested in
that ecosystem, so this one's for you Squirt. And welcome home son. We
are so glad to have you home at last. We missed you so and love you an
infinite amount.

1-13-10

A three cup of tea day. I woke early and started attacking my to-do list. A very long one! I had to make all my final plans for the first day of class, create the PowerPoint for my presentation in California and edit my paper one final time (found "Author (2009) in the bibliography. Oops!). Plus there were errands to do in preparation for my trip, and here it is 10pm and I haven't packed yet. It will be a late night. But not as late as Dan and Squirt's. They are driving home together from Virginia and are due in around 2am. Yikes!

1-12-10

Walked to school this morning in the snow, then had meetings ALL DAY LONG. Got scolded by a colleague for something I did - but did not do intentionally to cause any trouble for anyone- and then walked all the way home in the snow. Five miles round trip! Exausted with a headache, I watched two episodes of Big Love on DVD then went to bed.

1-11-10

Meetings all day. Tonight, home alone, I took frosted chandelier bulbs and turned them into naked ones. All nine of them. Proud of myself, I am.

1-10-10

The sun came out and the fat robins came back today and hopped all over the yard. I found these footprints on my front steps. Today I went to church, attended a meeting afterwards, came home and took a nap, ate dinner, watched TV, and started on my to-do list for the week. It's going to be crazy. I teach until 12:15 on Thursday and have a 1:20 flight to California to catch. How is that going to work??? I'm just going to have to cut class short and hop in a car ready to go at noon. All packed, all cleaned up from class, all ready to go. It's going to be a tough week.

1-9-10

It started snowing again last night. The trees were beautiful when I woke up this morning.



Late morning we walked from our house to a shopping area about 2.5 miles away to visit a store that sells reproduction antique lighting. We found three chandeliers we liked for our dining room, took pictures of them, then went to lunch.

After lunch we went back to the shop and the owner's grandson drove us and three chandeliers home.
The owner met us to give us her opinion.

It was unanimous- we all liked the "Venetian."
We bought it.
Dan installed it tonight.

It has a star for the ceiling and is supposed to symbolize Galileo and his telescope in Venice. Whatever. It's very classic looking with a contemporary twist. We love it.
I think we should have gotten clear bulbs instead of frosted ones though.

Dan is going to install a dimmer switch so we can turn the lights down for effect.

I did some more shoveling so the sidewalk and driveway would be clear tomorrow, but it kept on snowing.
I made my first snow angel in ages.
It felt good.

1-8-10

If you catch it at just the right time, the sun shines through a window on our starway and casts a beautiful shadow of the wood banister poles. I wonder how this will change as the year goes by. This was taken at 9:12 am this morning.

I worked on preparing my performance portfolio all morning then shoveled snow. Above photo credit: Dan.

I finished the driveway, both entrances, and the entire sidewalk in front of the house. Then I wrote all afternoon and finished a paper I'd been working on for months. I'll be presenting it at a conference in California next week. It's DONE DONE DONE!!!

Look familiar? This is my glass lily purchased at an art fair this summer. I have another photo of it on my blog here: http://chrissysphotoaday.blogspot.com/2009/11/11-23-09.html

1-7-10

Today was a juxtaposition between the sight of snow outside all around, and the smell of paperwhites in the house. Like my house was having season confusion- spring? winter?




I liked being snowed in. Wrote all day long. ALL DAY LONG.
Discovered the bag of chocolate chips in the cupboard... Dan you'd better hide them from me!

1-6-10

Frisbee's favorite spot. And no matter how nice I make the pillows in the morning, he re-arranges them.
Today I wrote all morning and worked at school all afternoon. Intended to walk home in the cold but it was almost 5:30 before I was done and it was dark out. My dear Dan came and picked me up and we went out to dinner at Bourbon & Tolouse, a great cajun eatery. Wrote all evening. Been writing quite a lot these days.
Writing what, you ask?
DR K-12 grant due today
ASEE draft due tomorrow
Performance portfolio due Wednesday
ASTE paper needs to be done by Wednesday
Syllabus needs to be done by Wednesday
IEECI grant due on the 20th
ITEST grant due in February

1-5-10

Snowed most of the day, nice and soft little flakes. Worked, went to a couple meetings, made dinner, packaged up some little surprises for a few folks. Must write tomorrow. Must must must write.

1-4-10

The day started out all snowy, like a winter wonderland- big flakes falling.
I decided to stay home and work since it was too cold to walk and too snowy to drive.



I started a fire in the woodstove in the main house and Dan started one in the studio for the first time.
Toward evening, I saw what looked like a flame coming out the chimney of the studio wood stove.
So I got out my telephoto lens and zoomed in really close. Dan shut down the stove and the "flame" went away.
Now we need a chimney sweep to check it out.

Worked some more after a dinner of shrimp and grits (stone ground brought back from South Carolina by friends!), then Dan made bread.
2 cups whole wheat and 3 cups unbleached white flour
His first bread-making attempt.
Can't wait for breakfast!
We can use the microwave for a "bread box" like Papa used to do.

1-3-10

Today was especially cold. We went for a walk (3 miles) and boy did my cheeks sting. So I lit a fire today- first one I lit myself.

Jes left this morning so I just moped about most of the day. I did manage to install EndNote on my laptop and learn a bit about it. The above photo is of the paperwhites that bloomed. My friend at work gave me the bulbs for Christmas and they are blooming so pretty.

And Dan finished painting the beams in the studio "wrought iron." It looks SO cool. Dontcha think so?

So tomorrow it's back to work for me. Gotta stop moping about and get my work done. Two more weeks and I'll be in California- now that's something to look forward to.