My Frozen Backyard Lake

My little lake does freeze over in the winter. You can go snow mobiling on it and ice skating. On December 14th the lake looked like this:

Only 5 days later, this past Saturday, it was thick enough for Jumper boy to go running around on the ice! Although, he did mention that at one place he did crack it a bit... scary! I think I'll wait until it's a bit more frozen to go running around on it!

The #1 Reason to go HOME for Christmas!!!

The #1 reason to go home for Christmas this year is MY NEPHEWS!!! First, I still haven't met little Corbin. Second, Matthew is such a great kid and is so much fun that you can't not miss him!!! I am sooooo excited to see my brother Craig, his wife Ana and their two boys! Here's some reasons why:










Who wouldn't want to go home to that?!?!?!?

It FINALLY feels like December!

I'll start with the Christmas decorations. I put up a small little Christmas tree with the few ornaments that I had. I put up a wreath that I got for $5 at Michaels (plus another $4 for the ribbon to wrap around it) in my kitchen above my table. I put up a stocking that I decorated years ago with Whitney and made a new one for jumper boy... even put a few things in it! :) And, I've taken up mom's old habit of writing cute little things on the packages... just a nice little touch!


I put up christmas lights on my little deck in the freezing cold (slightly rainy). The lights were compliments of John and Marianne who don't use them anymore (but don't worry, they have beautiful lit wreaths and garlands on their house!) I tested all the lights, but it seems that I grabbed one strand that I had put in the "no good" pile by accident. You can see that in the picture... it's been too cold for me to feel motivated to change it out although I think I'll do that later this week. As jumper boy pointed out to me, that was a novice mistake... but since it was the first time that I every hung lights outdoors, I feel that I am allowed to make such mistakes.


I have Christmas music on my computer (and Pandora) that liven up my spirits. I have hot chocolate and little marshmallows for when my friend Elaina comes over this Friday night to watch a Christmas movie! I'm so excited!!

AND on top of all that, we got our first snow yesterday. We've had little flurries a couple times the last month, but we got 6-8 inches of heavy snow yesterday... I can't wait to go skiing!!! I got a ski pass for the local mountain for $200 that lets me ski pretty much any time... it was dirt cheap because I got it so early. I'm excited about becoming a better skiier! But I'll probably wait until I get home from Christmas to go... I've got too much going on before then to worry about it!

December 3

This past Thursday, my boss insisted (with prior notification of course) that I was going to give a seminar at the monthly TB meeting that is held at Harvard on the first Thursday of every month starting in October and ending in May. December 3rd was my appointed date. So, on December 2nd, I headed out to Everett to stay over at jumper boy's house while I finished preparing for my talk the next morning. I like to stay there before these meetings because in order to beat traffic going into Boston, you have to leave Worcester by 6am... so staying in Everett means I can wake up at my normal time. We both studied until about 11pm. My seminar went so well that my boss didn't have a single critique... even thought it was good enough to be a thesis defense! yay! I am so pleased. That day I got an e-mail from a friend of mine who is a post-doc at Harvard... apparently his entire lab came to the seminar and really liked it... and again today (almost a week later) I was told by someone who didn't even attend the lecture that he heard I gave a really fantastic seminar! yay again! As a graduate student it is easy to think that you're not very good at things or that nobody cares about your research. This is the first time I felt like I really am very good at what I do. It was a great reminder to me that even though most of the time I don't feel smart, I am, and I am talented. I just have to remember that more often!

November

Since I haven't posted anything for a while, I'm calling this one "November" so that I can accurately describe for you the goings-on of the month since the illnesses.

Health Update: It seems that jumper boy and I are both well. We are no longer sick or chugging Airborne or going through a box of Kleenex a day. It took some time, but we have healed. I got hit much worse than he did. After recovering from the flu, I had another short series of colds worsened by the fact that I had the strong urge to go to the gym after being sedentary for so long.

Thanksgiving week: I had arrived in Everett on Tuesday evening and we ate an absolutely fantastic spicy pasta with vegetables. We watched movies, we slept in, we cooked dinners and ate homemade soups... it was lovely. Black Friday consisted of lunch and walking around a drizzly Boston before going to see the movie "men who stare at goats". We generally stayed away from the shopping crowds and relaxed instead. We did some homework and reading for work, but only minimally since we really both needed to take time to relax after being stressed out and sick.

Next up: Thanksgiving. Ok. Well, jumper boy has "family" in Pembroke, MA. "Family" is a loose term because really it's the family of his grandfather's sister... I think. Anyhow, they are connected so we drove out there for the party. Let me just say this: if there are any Riel's reading this, do not, in any way/shape/form, have any sympathy for this boy when he eventually meets the Riel's. I'll just stop there. I will say however that I was very warmly welcomed into the home (I'm not sure whose it was, many people said it was their house). Dinner was a bit of a whirlwind- not quite sure when it started or ended... but it was fast. After some time, a long long time considering the duration of dinner, we went to another house of someone else related who also lived in Pembroke. That's where we kicked off the crazy party which included karaoke. Yes, you heard me correctly. Karaoke. I did not participate in this event, but I did continue to drink the sweet sangria-like wine that they kept filling my glass with. I was exhausted after this day but I now know how outsiders can feel while at the Riel Bowl on New Year's Day. I felt a bit overwhelmed... but I survived and the next time I meet them, it will be easier.

The end.

The Flu

Ok, so, two Sunday's ago, jumper boy shared his lovely little cold with me. I fought it off relatively quickly... but then again, he shared yet another little bug with me. (I realize I could have gotten these colds from somewhere else, but I like blaming him for it!) Then, the day Jessie was to arrive, I started leaking blood from my sinuses. I went to the doctor and got an antibiotic to treat my secondary infection of my sinuses. I was getting better, although I was sick the whole week Jess was in town. So, I went in to work on Tuesday. Tuesday night, I started feeling it coming on again... bummer. Wednesday I woke up with a pretty severe cough and chest congestion and decided it was best not to go to work, so I stayed at home again. By the evening, I was actually feeling better so I decided that I would attend the monthly TB meeting at Harvard (I don't always go, but decided that since I'm giving a talk next month to the same group, I should make an appearance). So, I called up jumper boy to stay at his place that night so I wouldn't have to wake up at 4:30am to sit in traffic from Worcester to Boston to make a 9:30am meeting. I was feeling good... or at least better. Woke up, feeling ok... as if I was almost through with this lingering cold. Went to the meeting, sat down in a jam-packed seminar room and started uncontrollable sneezing and nose leakage. Bummer. Went through about half a box of Kleenex on the way back from Harvard to UMass Worcester due to nose-leakage and went back to lab. I was supposed to work on a Western Blot with a rotation student that's currently in our lab... and about that time, I got SLAMMED. Flu. Ran into my boss at the pharmacy... he sent me home immediately after he told me that "you look truly horrible". I got home about 2pm and was sore everywhere and had serious chills and sneezing and coughing and sinus congestion. Fortunately, I slept ok last night. I woke up this morning feeling quite rested. I had hoped that jumper boy would come visit me because I've had way too many days at home... sick... alone. It's getting old. But jumper boy is sick now and needs to rest if he's going to work this weekend. Hopefully he doesn't have the flu like I had because last night I felt like death... seriously. I felt really terrible. I'm a little bummed out from being alone so long... but that's how sickness goes. Its time like these I wish I had a TV and/or roommates.

Jessie's Visit

My friend Jessie came out from CA to visit me and see New England Fall. We went out around Boston with jumper boy, visited the Wayside Inn, went to Salem for Halloween evening, toured Salem the next day and then back to San Diego she went. We had a good time and it was really nice to have a friend come to visit me.

Out in Fanuel Hall in Boston:

me and jumper boy... I kinda like him.



Me and Jessie



I love this picture... we were having some serious fun.


The church and the school house dedicated to "Mary had a little Lamb" which actually was in the town of Sterling not far from there.



On Halloween night, we stayed in a nice little hotel in Beverly MA near Salem so we wouldn't have to drive home late. We were only about 10 minutes away from downtown Salem. As it turns out, Salem is incredibly anti-climatic if you go down there for the nite-life... everything shut down at 12:30pm and last call was around midnight. Bummer! We were joking around that the rest of the world had barely left their houses at that time! Booo Salem! But at least we can say "been there, done that".





Salem! We visited some major monuements, the Witch Museum, the House of Seven Gables and did a lot of walking around. We got super lucky, the weather was perfect.

New England Fall... I love it

The view from my apartment...

A Canoeing Adventure

On Friday afternoon this past weekend, jumper boy came out to Worcester to hang with me. I had been sitting at a desk all day so I immediately decided we needed to go for a canoe ride. We started at my dock in the cove (bottom star) and made our way up to the vicinity of Lake Park (about halfway down the lake).


I'm certain it's because I had jumper boy with me that we were able to go so far. I have tried to go so far previously, but never made it either due to winds or darkness.


We took a couple pictures because even though it was grey out because of the storm we were expecting, it was still nice to be out moving. We had loads of fun.


We explored a couple coves. One of the "islands" we came across had this cute little bridge connecting it, but the poor little plot of land looks like it caught fire at some point this summer. So sad.

Dave took great pains to position the boat perfectly so you can see the fall foliage behind me. Turned out ok!

West Boylston Massachusetts in the Fall

God did the work. I took the picture. Need I say more?

Sunday's Accomplishments

Today was a snowy day. I had wanted to do some work on my talk that I'm giving on Tuesday, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. Instead I did a bunch of stuff around the house... after a trip to Walmart and the making of a three-bean soup.

I painted my ugly green yucky $5 yard sale table. I thought it was black... but it was clearance pre-tinted Walmart paint and it ended up being more of a midnight blue. The good news is that it's dark. That's what I wanted. And for $3, I'm happy with the result.


While waiting for the first coat of paint to dry on the table, I constructed a cabinet for my bathroom AND I even hung it by myself. It's level and everything. I'm amazing. Of course after all the construction there was vacuuming and cleaning required... the list grows and grows...


Then I made chocolate cupcakes with Penuche Filling. "Penuche" comes from a Mexican word meaning "raw sugar" or "brown sugar". It is used to describe a fudgelike candy made from brown sugar, butter, milk and vanilla. (It has a caramel taste to it). I made them for my friend Laura's birthday. It was Saturday, but I figured we could have some cake on Monday to celebrate. She's the lab manager of our lab and always remembers everyone's birthday. I totally flaked on her day, so hopefully it will be OK that we're celebrating after the fact instead of the Friday before... oops!


My chairs in the kitchen have been rough getting in and out of when I eat there in the mornings. So I put some sliders on the bottoms of all 4 chairs and the table too. Busy work...


I got a lot done. I'm ready to focus on my seminar and grant writing this week...

Snowy Sunday on the Lake in Worcester

It's Sunday. I've got loads of work to do at home. I am doing it because Ultimate Frisbee was canceled due to inclement weather. It is snowing. I'm making soup in a slow cooker. I'm working on my seminar that I'm giving on Tuesday and I'm painting the ugly $5 yard sale table that I bought. I'm a serious multitasker!