1-16-09

Shopping at Sams never fails to surprise.

1-15-09

Today was awesome. First, I made a list of everything I needed to accomplish in the next month. Then I sent an email out to my committee members requesting their availability for my dissertation defense. After several hours of playing with schedules, I got a call from the lady at the Rotunda who reserves rooms. Within an hour I had a date and time and room. Victory! I am defending my dissertation on March 16th, two months from tomorrow. To celebrate, Dan and I went on a very cold and long walk where I took this picture with my amazing iPhone. Then we took Squirt and went out for dinner at my favorite pizza place. Today... was... awesome.

1-14-09

OK, this is embarassing- but this is the state of my dungeon. It's a royal mess. I'm buried in papers and piles of stuff. So, this is the BEFORE photo. After I clean it up, I'll take an AFTER photo. Now that I've turned in Chapter 4, gotten two interviews lined up, set a rough date for my defense, and accomplished a myriad of other academic leaps, I can put on some music and clean up this place. Count down: 8 days till LOST!!!!

1-13-09

Bavaro Hall, or what will be Baravo Hall, as seen from the 2nd floor window of the former chairman of my department at school. He has a pretty good view! I met with the statistics prof today and got a good thumbs up on my number crunching. Tomorrow I turn in Chapter 4 and the outline for Chapter 5. I had a productive morning working on an NSF proposal I've been invited to be part of. Pretty cool stuff going on in the professional chapter of my life.

1-12-09

Messing around with my "productivity tool" while lying in bed after a
somewhat productive day. I went to a lecture and workshop on college
teaching this morning then worked on chapter 5 all afternoon.

1-11-09

Dan and I went for a nice walk around the residential neighborhood
near UVA today after Aza left for school. We saw a house with
chickens! Chickens, right there near grounds.

1-10-09

This photo of Sophie was taken with my iPhone. It's truly amazing the quality that comes out of that little thing. And it really enhances my ability to take photos when I'm out on the go... without my entire cadre of lenses and such. But I've been doing a lot of staying at home lately. The dissertation is #1 on the priority list and I'm writing Chapter 5- so the end is in sight.

1-9-09

We took a walk on the downtown mall tonight and saw all the
construction they are doing ripping up the bricks.

1-8-09

Aza looks just like Sophie in her fuzzy white coat and gloves. We went on a walk this evening- it was pretty cold. I cleaned up Chapter 3 today and hope to nail the Chapter 5 outline tomorrow. I'm getting excited about my upcoming job interview and the academic career that I've been working toward for 5 years.

I'm also looking forward to Gray's Anatomy tonight and LOST in two weeks!!!

1-7-09

I saved all the paper cranes and flowers that Aza took down from her ceiling. Today was very productive. I got Chapter 4 all cleaned up.

1-6-08

Today my Aza grew up. She took her adolescent bedroom apart one word, one paper crane, one Got Milk ad at at time (all 63 of them).

I kept all the paper cranes. We're making a scrap book out of the Got Milk ads. The words? Well... they're just paper words now. She turns 21 in less than two weeks. I guess she's ready.

1-5-09

I did NOT take this photo. It was taken by Robert W. Madden on Fox Island, and features Bo Hoppin, an educator with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. It was the cover photo on National Geographic some years back. The reason this photo is today's photo is because of this story:

Last year I took 25 kids to an island in the Chesapeake Bay. http://chrissysphotoaday.blogspot.com/2007/11/10-31-07.html

Only 12 of these kids could afford the the $225 price tag. The trip was cancelled when only a dozen signed up, but I begged the school for 24 more hours to find the rest of the money. My cousin John called me within an hour of my email plea to all my relatives... he said, "Don't worry, Chrissy- it's covered." And it was. A couple of my other relatives helped out, but John donated over $2000 towards the trip.

John died two weeks ago.

I attended the celebration of his life and gave a short eulogy about his love of the Chesapeake Bay and his generosity, and how his big heart made it possible for all 25 country kids from central Virginia to experience an island for three days.

After the service, a stranger came up to me named Bob. He shook my hand and gave me his business card. On the back of the card, he printed in block writing, "IT'S STILL COVERED."

I cried.

Today the school received a letter from CBF stating that it was accepted again for a trip, this time to Fox Island- the most magical place on Earth. As far as the price tag-- it's still covered. So, look here after Memorial Day Weekend for some fabulous photos like the one above, because that's where I'll be.

God Bless You, John.
And you too, Bob.

1-3-09

This is all I saw today. I worked very hard- approximately 12 hours- and finally finished Chapter 4. I'd wanted to do this before Christmas, but hey- January 3rd isn't so far off. YES! I'm done! Well... that is, until my advisor gets ahold of it and then I'll be back working on it again. But for now, I feel victory. Sleepy time!

1-1-09

New Year's Day. Aza came home this afternoon after seeing her boyfriend leave for a year in Iraq. She is very very sad. He called from Ireland this evening on his way to Kuwait. Next stop, Iraq. We finalized our family newsletter/photo mailing extravaganza today.

12-31-08

The Sun sets on 2008. Jes and I spent half the day running errands. The other half I spent finishing up our yearly newsletter and family photo. This evening Dan and I will work on envelopes and such together. We love the ritual. This year's newsletter is quite special. Tonight Aza's Tom departs for Iraq. She is in NC with him and his family. It's a tough way to spend New Year's Eve. Jes is going out with friends and Squirt is goofing off with his buddies, the Bosnain Kaos. I'd better get supper started. Tomorrow we will have Hoppin' John to start off the NEW YEAR right. Good night, 2008. It was a good year.

12-30-08

New boots! NOW I'm ready for job interviews. Spent half the day in bed with an unexpected migraine. No idea where it came from. Pizza? Could it have been the Mellow Mushroom pizza?

12-29-08

On the way home from Auburn. We stopped at a shoe store that advertised Danskos and I found the boots I'd been wanting at a great price. Here's my happy smile. Then we drove past the peach and my iPhone took a mixed up photo. Hmmm... What's with that?

We stopped for some boiled peanuts and fireworks. Jes was happy with her peanuts and Squirt was mad he didn't get the TNT he'd been hoping for. From the look on his face, I'm glad we only agreed to bottle rockets. We had a near miss with a poorly driven car and I had to call the State Highway Patrol and report this miscreant car, but thankfully Dan was able to steer us to safety. We all were asleep and awoke with quite a fright but safe and sound.

Safely home, very tired. Very very tired.

12-28-08

These are Buddy's hands. He is only 6 months old and he almost can play Beethoven. Almost.

Today was very busy- our last day in Auburn for the holidays. Lots of visiting and running around getting our new cellphone plan switched to AT&T. We went to Mellow Mushroom for dinner with Mom and Squirt bought himself a funny t-shirt.

12-27-08

Today I was tired. We ate breakfast late then Aza left for NC, then Dan and Jes and I went to the museum, then we went to visit Bob and Mark, then we came back to my Mom's house as the sun was setting. The sunset was so pretty and I took a photo of it. After we got home, there were more visits from my sister and bro-in-law and Buddy, Jennifer, Ben, and Professor Hall. Still tired. Late supper. Our stay in the deep south is coming to a close. 70 degree days will be no longer as we journey North again on Monday past the big peach.

12-26-2008

This is what used to be the Greenhouse Restaurant, my Mom's business
in Opelika. I took this with my new iPhone and am posting from the
phone too. How cool is this!

12-25-08

A good time was had by all!

First Christmas for Buddy. I got two gifts from my wislist- a new macro lens and an iPhone! These photos all taken with new lens. Pretty sweet. We'll go pick up the iPhone tomorrow and I hope I can transfer my phone number over. Squirt was pretty surprised with his new guitar and Jes and Aza got KitchenAide mixers from Nana which blew them away! We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast and it was a great morning.

12-24-08

After church we had a nice dinner party with family. Here is me and Kate and our mom who reminds me of Julia Child in this photo.

And then there's baby B taking it all in. Sweet little nephew!

12-23-08

The big peach in South Carolina- the halfway landmark on our way to Alabama.

Atlanta rush hour traffic! Yeah!

But we got to see a cool Coke sign and the Olympic Torch.

We made it to Auburn in 10.5 hours- record time. Thank goodness for the new bypasses around Danville and Lynchburg.