12-8-09

Tuesday. This day I taught my last class of the semester and gave a teaching evaluation out to my students. This day I sat in my office with the door closed, missing the college faculty meeting, and cried in that brown chair for three hours. This day I found out my son will not finish his first year of college and is coming home on Sunday (there is more to that story... too personal even for a personal blog). This day was full of grief. But I went out to dinner with my science and math faculty friends (three of them pictured above dressed as the blue woman group) and drank two cups of coffee to drown my grief in while eating coconut shrimp.

12-6-09

Sunday. We painted more of the studio. The upper color is actually a grayish sage green. Future photos in good daylight should reveal the true colors. But you can see that the floor is down but the kitchen is still funky purple with an orange ceiling.

12-5-09

First snow. This blog post (being typed on 12-13) demonstrates how vapid my memory is. Without a clue or context, I forget my life. The 5th of December. It snowed. It was a Saturday. I look at my calendar and see that we had a dinner date that we cancelled. Ah, now it's coming back. We cancelled because Dan was sick. I wasn't feeling too great either, recovering from a migraine the day before.

12-3-09

My sister had a baby today! My brother-in-law sent me these photos of my new nephew, 6 lbs. 2 oz. Fozzie Bear.

It was difficult day at work, and a difficult day in my head as I wrestled with some family news. But the miracle of new life trumps all. Welcome to the world, little bear.

12-2-09

My students made wind turbines and water turbines today, measuring current, voltage, and calculating power. I need to work on this lesson some more, as it was a challenging exercise for them.Perhaps not appropriate for elementary preservice teachers, perhaps so.

12-1-09

December 1st. My brother W is here visiting and we went down to the Kentucky River today. Crossed over on a car ferry to the other side.

11-27-09

Swamp, party, boudin, helium balloons

11-26-09

Thanksgiving day with 40 relatives eating around five tables in
Grandma's dining and living rooms. The smells of oyster dressing, the
sounds of football and laughter, the sights of children playing in the
yard all took me back to my youth. This is a photo of shrimp boats in
the canal behind Grandma's house. Tomorrow, a fait do do in Grandma's
honor at the community center.

11-25-09

Worked in the morning then traveled all day to get to Grandma's house
down in south Louisiana. Greeted by a house full of relatives, we had
seafood and sausage gumbo for dinner.

11-24-09

Grandma.

We leave in the morning for a family reunion in south Louisiana. Tonight I put together a photo album/guest book for the party we are having to celebrate my grandmother's 88th birthday (it was in September). Oh, I can't wait. Today Aza came home so the three of us are flying together. Look for some awesome photo updates!

11-23-09

I worked today, had a productive meeting and some conversations. Tomorrow it's back in the classroom after a too-long-break. This evening I set my white balance to shade and took these pictures when it was nearly dark out. The top one is grainy, but I like the look. It's a glass flower I bought at an arts and crafts fair this summer. Below is our fig tree ready for cold weather.

This is a true rendering of the color of the studio. Look how well it goes with the cork floor and with the two pub signs we have for the room. We finished painting this color today, and now need to choose a complimentary color for the panels showing on the second story. We'd like a lighter color that matches.

11-22-09 afternoon

Before and after painting with the selection we decided on. (It was the paint on the wall in the lower right hand corner.) The picture isn't the exact color, but it's close. A warm brown. We love it.

11-22-09 morning

Dan went to Lowes and picked up four more samples of brown paint for the studio. Which one to choose? We deliberated all morning then made our decision.

11-21-09

We had breakfast at The Tavern with our dear friends this morning. Jes introduced "Red" and "Purple" to each other while she was in college, and they got married six months later! "Purple" and "Orange" and I have been friends for over 20 years, raising our children together who were all about the same age.

We visited with more friends for lunch, and more friends for afternoon tea- then headed home to Kentucky. I got silly and tried to capture a photo of the amazing cresent moon setting in the west, but got a piece of artwork instead. Got home around 10- made good time.

11-20-09 part 3

Dan picked me up around 2ish and we went for a walk along our beloved
river. Aza called while we were there saying she and T were driving
through town. We met them for tea/coffee and I should have taken a
picture! We are visiting some friends in the morning then heading back
to Old Kentucky.

11-20-09 part 2

Took the trolly from the hospital downtown and ate lunch at my
favorite pizza place ever. From there walked to my old school and the
teachers I knew were out on a field trip. Walked from there to MJ
hospital for my last appointment of the day.

11-20-09 part 1

Woke at 6:15 for my day of exams. Watched the sunrise over
Monticello. It all went OK except for the way my neck was positioned
in the 45 minute MRI. Still hurts. Managed to slather my hands in
numbing Emla cream an hour before the IV poke. No results yet but I
think someone would have called my oncologist if something was awry.
No worries whatsoever.

11-19-09

After working all morning on 1)student evaluations, 2)the NSF grant
proposal, 3)reviewing applications for our faculty opening and 4)
meeting with the STEM Ed team, we headed east toward Virginia over the
rainy foggy misty mountains. I got a kick out of this scene below.
Settled in for the night with our friends.

11-18-09

Which color? Thanks to Sherwin Williams I was able to virtually paint all sorts of colors on the wall. We have our favorite picked out. What's yours?

Leaving tomorrow for C'ville to get my annual cancer screening Friday. Coming up on 5 years as a survivor! Oh but I hate the IV and the needles. Yuck. An entire day of poking and prodding... I'm looking forward to getting it over with then coming home to paint the studio!

11-17-09

Does this remind you of anything? Perhaps this day?
This evening went like this...

7:00pm
Dan: When should we lay the cork flooring?
Chrissy: Half before this weekened and the other half after before Thanksgiving.
Dan: That will never work. {{Sigh}}
Chrissy: Maybe we should do it all at once.
Dan: Good idea. Let's start tonight.
...Lug...Haul...Heave...Ho...
Dan: Well, now that it's empty perhaps we should paint after all.
Chrissy: Good idea. What color????????
10:00 pm

11-16-09

It's getting dark so early, by the time I get home it's scary dark out. These two pictures were taken on my walk home today. The first is the College of Design, which houses the School of Architecture (hint hint, LS). A lovely building with chandeliers inside!

As I got closer to home I could see the traffic piling up, and I loved the silouette of the tree against the setting sun and beautiful clouds. So nice to walk and not be sitting in a car in traffic.

11-14-09

There is a story behind this cake. A co-worker's husband made it and brought it over for dinner this evening. Needless to say we couldn't finish it. Probably because it was 3 feet tall, none of us were name Carol, and even though I feel 65 some days, I'm not. Yet. We had a nice dinner though, and plenty of dessert!

PS We ate home-grown sprouts in our salad. Yumm!