Sunny Hunny

Panama City

2012-01-28T09:32:00.007-05:00

On our way home from Rio de Janeiro we stopped off in Panama City for a day. We had a tour from a taxi driver who took us around the city. We were told originally that it would cost $80 for the day at the kiosk in the airport, but when we went outside to get a taxi to take us around, the drivers out there wanted to charge us double. We did NOT want to pay $160 for a city tour, so we went back to the information kiosk and tried to find alternatives. The woman who was helping us fixed the situation after a heated discussion with the taxi manager... but we got our tour. :) The reason we wanted to do a tour is because we only had 12 hours and we wanted to see as much as possible without having to rent a car and getting lost. We drove around a lot and saw all the major sights in Panama City, including Miraflores locks of the Panama Canal!

What was truly amazing was how modern the city is. I had no idea. But not only was it modern, but filled with history and beautiful scenery. We toured the casco viejo (historic city) filled with Caribbean, Republican, Art Deco, French and Colonial architecture- as diverse as the population living there. It was really a great time. My first stop ever in central america. We really loved it!

Craving Winter

2012-01-11T14:39:00.002-05:00

Being a San Diego native, I did not grow up seeing snow in an annual cycle of weather patterns. Truthfully, until I moved to Massachusetts for grad school, I had only seen snow twice in my entire life. But those years being stuck in a lab taught me so much more than how to be a scientist, I've also learned to appreciate all that winter has to offer. First, mother nature gets you ready for the cold and gives you the oh-so-glorious fall season. Brisk in the mornings and afternoons, fall lets you know that soon it will be REALLY cold. Enjoy your outdoor non-snow activities because they will be out the window as soon as the fluffy white stuff, blistering cold winds and ice galore comes-a-knockin'.

Winter allows you to slow down your pace too. Enjoy that book & don't feel guilty that you should be outside playing in the sunshine. Snowshoeing with your spouse and dog sure makes you appreciate the value of a bowl of soup. Suddenly, your urge to go out right now to the store or the mall or anywhere for that matter, is curbed. Thank you God! I love winter.

I love it despite the cost of heating even the smallest apartment. I love winter though I am scared to death of slipping on ice, or worse, my car slipping on ice! I love it for what summer is not... slow and relaxed.

Dear winter, where are you??

Wedding details

2012-01-06T11:41:00.002-05:00

Ever since I started planning our wedding, I would search the web for color-palette ideas and always found these cool wedding detail boards that people would put together. Since then, I've wanted to put my own together, so here it is! A navy, yellow & aqua wedding detail board!! :) Everything pictured below are shots from my wedding!

Tijuca National Forest Jungle Jeep Tour

2011-12-06T11:22:00.010-05:00

On our last day in Rio, we decided to do a Jeep Tour of Tijuca National Forest. We had been toying around with the idea of going to visit the forest and the botanical garden and on the last day, we got lucky with a sunny morning before afternoon rain came in and we went for it.

One of the things that we learned was that brazilians don't care much about time. Another family was supposed to join us on the same jeep. We waited over 30 minutes for them... they never came. Then, as we were about half way to the forest, the jeep driver got a call that they showed up at the meet-up spot and we had to go back to get them. FAIL!! Since they do an afternoon tour as well, it meant that we didn't have time to stop at the gorgeous un-touched beach that we should have stopped at. Oh well. Overall, it was great.

Tijuca National forest is the largest urban forest in the world. The first sight that you see is the Chinese Vista Outlook. Our guide told us that before this park was turned into a rainforest area, that this particular spot was where chinese immigrants to the area grew tea. And very close-by is the Mesa do Imperador where the Portuguese emperor would sit with his family to eat and had a view of most of the city back in the day. Our tour guide loved taking pictures for Dave and I. He actually insisted that we pretended to eat at the table...

Chinese Vista Outlook

View from the outloook

Eating at the Mesa do Imperador

The emperor's view from his dining area

Next sight is the Cascatinha waterfall. This is right next to an old farm area that was turned into a restaurant. We enjoyed a nice coconut popsicle and the lovely scenery including a map of the forest made of tiles and a cool fountain. Our tourguide insisted we could drink the water from the fountain (and he did) but we decided against it.

Cascatinha Waterfall

Banana flower at the waterfall

Dave pretending to drink from the fountain

Map of the forest

A nice spot to relax in

We then continued on through the forest and were surprised to find a small chapel in the middle of the forest. We later learned that though there are no houses being built any longer in the forest, there are some that remained untouched and thus there is a chapel. It's called Mayrink Chapel and was an interesting shade of pink. We couldn't go inside, but it was a lovely spot.

We ended up doing some traveling by foot through the forest. I had really hoped to spot a tucan or monkeys, but we weren't lucky that day. We did spot what we thought was a turkey up in the trees and some cool flowers.

Our views in the forest:

After the trek through the forest, we were headed out of the forest and weren't able to snap very good pictures in the moving jeep. Once outside of the forest we passed by one of the largest favela's in Rio (which we didn't photograph) and an amazing stretch of beach that seemed to be un-touched. Gorgeous!! We really did see some stunning views on this ride back to our hotel, but I guess that means you'll have to go visit if you want a look!

Here are some of the shots that we managed to snap on our ride back into the city, including one of the large favela which we snapped from a significant distance

I think that this was one of the best things that we did because it really gave us a great view of the city and a chance to enjoy so many of the natural beauties of Rio de Janiero

Sugarloaf Mountain & Helicopter Ride

2011-12-02T10:17:00.008-05:00

On one of the mornings that was supposed to be a relatively clear day in Rio, we decided to make the trek to Sugarloaf Mountain. That was pretty interesting because you take these sky trams up to the top to see all the views. It sounds like it's a much more athletic trip than it actually is. We got there and wandered some of the "trails" along the top. We took in all the views from every point and enjoyed every minute. It was very relaxing.

Once at the top, when we were heading down, we were debating whether or not to take our chances to try to see the Christo again. (If you remember the first time, we were stuck in the clouds.) But then we saw a sign for the helicopter tours. Unfortunately the cheaper ride required 3 passengers. We waited around a bit to see if we could find a 3rd person to come with us, but we couldn't... so we decided to go for it anyways and went for the more expensive tour (which was longer as well) and only required 2 passengers. This cost about as much as a tandem skydive would cost back in the US, so we were ok with the price. We had lovely views of the Christo and the beaches below. Overall, totally worth it!

Santa Teresa & Lapa

2011-11-09T12:58:00.006-05:00

In our preparations for our honeymoon, we researched sights we would want to go see. We read about them and watched videos about it. One of the places that we were especially excited to go see was Santa Teresa and Lapa. We heard that Santa Teresa was an artistic community filled with shops and cafe's. We were supposed to be able to take a trolley "bondinho" from the city center to this community.

Our first clue should have been that the trolley wasn't running anymore. Apparantly there was an accident that killed 7 people and also led to the bondinho's demise. So, we unknowingly had a taxi drive us up to Santa Teresa where we (naively) thought we'd wander down through the neighborhoods until we reached the Arcos da Lapa and the Escalera de Selaron.

I think the taxi driver thought we were nuts when we asked him to drop us off in the middle of nowhere. Little did he know that our map told us that we should have been in the middle of quite the happening place! It was drizzly that morning, so I thought by the looks of things that maybe we would have to work a little harder to find what we were looking for. It MUST have just been hiding!

We started walking. I saw this amazing shop. It looked like it was selling mostly fruit, but it had this amazing blue and white tiled store front. I HAD to take a picture... that is, until the lady inside the shop started yelling/screaming at me to put the camera away. No pictures. We were also being followed by a transvestite-type person trying to sell me "hand-made" jewelry. I was nervous. It also seemed like she was following us. Double nervous. But he/she was the closest thing we saw to a "shop" in the area.

We started wandering down the street looking for shops and the famous Escalera. The place was mostly a dump, most likely went downhill after the trolley stopped bringing the tourists up. However, there were some cool looking buildings I would have liked to take pictures of. I actually had to wait around about 5 minutes until the coast was clear to snap this photo.

The point at which we took this picture, was the last "decent" memory I have of this place. We were not far from the Arcos de Lapa and the Escalera, but we had to walk a little further. We started down... we weren't sure which way to go. We turned the corner and decided that if we wanted to keep ANYTHING we had with us, we needed to turn around immediately and go back the other way. Because around the corner, we saw a street that had a reasonable number of threatening-looking people and there was NO WAY we could blend in... especially with my "yellow" hair (what the Brazilians referred to blonde hair). It even made Dave nervous. We turned around and I started praying for a bus, a taxi, whatever... I didn't care, I just wanted out of there!

About 10 minutes later a bus came by and we stopped it and hopped on. Everyone on board staring at us like we were crazy... and that we definitely weren't from there! Less than 5 minutes on the bus we were at the Arcos. I refused to go back to the area looking for the Escalera and we continued on to the Metropolitan Cathedral & Bell Tower.

Arcos da Lapa

Metropolitan Cathedral

Bell Tower

This ultimately led us to meet our "tour guide" and taxi driver Luiz. He was absolutely amazing. So amazing, that I have to save that for next time... But here's a sneak preview- he brought us to the Escalera de Selaron that I was too nervous to go back searching for.

Views from the Roof-top: Rio de Janiero, Part 1

2011-11-04T12:18:00.004-04:00

Our first day of our honeymoon in Rio was after a long day of traveling and immediately following the wedding marathon! We left at 4am the morning after our wedding and drove from San Diego to LAX for our 13 hour flight to Brazil. If I were to do that over again, I would have left a day in-between to round everything up and soak in the first day of being married off of an airplane, but, as they say, "live and learn"! Regardless, the first day in Rio was wonderful. We arrived around 3am in the city, slept till about 10 and enjoyed the beach that was immediately in front of our hotel and the views from the roof-top pool and bar. We were completely lazy. We wandered a bit around the beach areas of Leblon and Impanema, but nothing too crazy. We grabbed dinner along the street. Dave ordered what he thought was going to be a soup and hamburger but turned out to be orange juice and a hamburger! That was pretty funny! We had no idea what we were ordering! But I'll say this, they have the BEST juices in Brazil. Sooo good & super fresh! We had fun trying the different varieties!

You can barely make out the Corcodova on that mountain behind us. At night it was all lit-up and pretty cool.

This is the view of Impanema Beach from our hotel roof.

We were wandering down by the beach at sunset and grabbed this shot. The sun set on the "Twin Brothers" mountain. The first day was one of the few days we got a sunset because it was cloudy and rainy for most of our time there. We actually thought that was Sugarloaf mountain and we would look there to see if it was a good day to visit Sugarloaf. We were shocked when we found out that wasn't the famous mountain! Typical tourists!

View of Twin Brothers mountains and Leblon Beach at night. Beautiful huh?!? We made it a habit to bring a bottle of wine with us to the roof-top at night to watch the scenery and relax. You can see the lights on the side of the mountain, and that is a very large favela. We drove by it on our way back from our jungle tour (more on that later) and it's very sad. Very low income housing area with over 12,000 people living there. If you think the gap between the rich & poor is bad in the US, go to Brazil where it is much worse. Less than a 5 minute drive from this favela is the Leblon beach where condo's sell for between 2-10 million Real's (the Brazilian currency). That is $1.14-5.7 million US dollars. Crazy!

Oh the beauty...

Our Wedding Day

2011-10-31T11:34:00.004-04:00

I really want to blog about our honeymoon, but I feel like I should write a little something about our wedding before I do that!

We were married on the most perfect day in October. It was a beautiful and sunny day with a perfect sunset. Everything about our day was perfect. I know that probably everyone thinks that about their wedding day, but ours really was. In fact, the whole first day of our honeymoon, we couldn't stop talking about how perfect everything was. Now, did it all go off without a hitch? No. The pedestals for the tall centerpieces were up-side down, the aisle runner wasn't long enough, the aqua blue linens that were used were much brighter than the ones that I picked, nobody waved the cute ribbon wands I spent so much time making and there was a mix-up with one of the groomsmen and the appropriate tie he was supposed to wear. But honestly, just little stuff and I'd still use the word "perfect" to describe our day. Why? Because everything else was amazing. The sun was shining, the flowers were gorgeous, people were smiling at the ceremony and dancing at the reception. We had such a perfect day with the people we love!

I am anxiously awaiting photos from our photographer, but here are a few I snagged off Facebook that others posted!

Corcovado

2011-10-13T16:08:00.003-04:00

The first day we saw the Corcovado or "Cristo Redentor" (Christ the Redeemer) was on the cloudiest day. We only had about one minute of time to get a clear picture of the 80 year-old statue on the list of the 7 Wonders of the World. Today, we took the most amazing helicopter tour from Sugarloaf Mountain and had an amazing view from above. It literally takes your breath away. Such an amazing sight...

In the moment of clearness

These two are from a helicopter above the Christo

Michelle Hartman, Ph.D.

2011-09-20T10:18:00.000-04:00

I've been completely MIA from my blog recently and once I explain it, you'll understand! I have been BUSY!! In 6 weeks time, I went to San Diego to finalize wedding details, went back to Massachusetts to finish writing my PhD without electricity (thank you Irene) and complete my defense (sucessfully!), finish my last experiment to get my paper published, drive down to Maryland, apply for our VISA's to go to Brazil for our honeymoon and catch up on sleep. Even more than that, I am getting married in 18 days! Yikes!! That being said, I am sooo excited for our upcoming wedding! Very happy that I am officially Dr. Hartman! And really really really looking forward to a week in Rio de Janiero to relax and celebrate with my love not only for our new marriage but also to celebrate both of our recent graduations! What a year...That being said, I can FINALLY share some graduation photos since I've FINALLY finished my PhD!!! :)

Wedding Registry/Hotel/Info

2011-08-02T08:22:00.003-04:00

Hi Everyone!

We've been getting emails about our gift registry and also hotel information for the wedding weekend.

You can find all of this information (and more) on our wedding website:
http://lanes2be.weddingwindow.com

But, to sum it up, we are registered at:

Williams & Sonoma
Macy's
Crate & Barrel
Bed Bath & Beyond

We have rooms booked at the Empress Hotel in La Jolla (a short 2 minute walk from the reception venue). To get a booking discount, tell them you are booking for the Hartman-Lane wedding & the discount is applied when you check out.

Thanks a lot all!

Big Move!

2011-07-28T16:21:00.002-04:00

We are buying boxes today, so I guess that means it's really happening. We are moving to DC! Yup, that's right. Dave got a job at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Producer Price Index department. (Don't ask, I don't know!) He starts his new job August 15th so we're packing up and moving him down to our new apartment on August 9th. We're sad to leave Boston, but excited for what's to come.

As of now, Dave will be alone with Ginny until I am finished with my dissertation. I'm defending on September 7th and will help him get moved in and then come back to Worcester to wrap stuff up. I don't have a job lined up yet, but have applied for several jobs. I've been in contact with a scientist at NIH to be a post-doc, and it looks promising. I've also applied for some private-sector and government (non-post doc jobs) and hope to hear from some of those as well.

Our new residence will be in Rockville, MD in the adorable town center, complete with cute shops and restaurants. We'll be about a 3 minute walk to the metro and... wait for it... we don't have to pay for a parking spot!! (That was HUGE when we came down to look for an apartment).

So stay tuned and wish us luck!

Business & Networking Cards

2011-07-22T10:56:00.003-04:00

Many of you know the importance of networking. You do it all the time. At work, at meetings, at lunches, but you may not realize that you also network at the gym or the hair salon... dare I say it, even at a bar! You never know who you will meet or when. I recently started working out with a group of about 6 people. The guy who "ran" the group is married to the VP at BD Biosciences for the Health Economics and Outcomes Research Group. Whoddathunkit? Gave the guy my "grad student" card that I made myself and am now connected to her, a valuable resource. Awesome. Always be prepared. You never know who you will meet!

These are the cards that I made myself in grad-school. I think you can get some through UMass when you are a student, but I wanted something a little more feminine.

But now, I'm facing the idea that I may be looking for a job while NOT at UMass and living in our new town Rockville, MD. So, I found these awesome "mini" cards. They are half the size of a business card. I was able to use confocal images that I took during my graduate research for the back-side and put my current info (email and phone number) on the opposite side in a cool lime green color, which happens to coordinate well with the images on the opposite side. Cool huh?!? Even better is that you can upload up to 100 different images. And they are cheap! $19.99/100. I think that's pretty good considering you are getting a unique product that can really promote your "brand". In full disclosure, I also ordered some non-nerdy ones with a cool pink-geometric pattern when I don't want someone to know my full geekiness. :)

Use the link above for a 10% discount!!

These are some of the images I used for my custom cards!

Little Miss Picky

2011-07-09T13:45:00.002-04:00

This cute little thing, Ginny, well, don't let her fool you. She is as picky as they get. She only eats her dog food when she is absolutely starving and there is no sight of human food anywhere. Now, the good news is, we aren't totally worried about her eating habits because she doesn't wolf down everything in sight. However, her pickiness has made me realize that it's actually easy to "trick" her into eating her dog food. For example, all Dave has to do to get her to eat is to put one little piece of human food in her bowl and she gobbles it up! Amazing!! Problem solved! But, we do give her little things every now and then and this is what we've discovered our sweet Ginny likes to eat.

1. She loves her food cooked in egg yolk (we do this occasionally because it's good for her coat). When we do this, she inhales her food... and we usually only give her one yolk (cooked) with a few tablespoons of kibble mixed in.

2. She goes CRAZY for barbecue... especially pork ribs. It's like she's died and gone to heaven. When we barbecue, you see her almost twitching as she sits watching us devour the deliciousness.

3. Chips/pretzels... anything like that.

4. Carrots, broccoli, oranges, apples

5. Cheese! oh boy... she waits at our feet when we grate cheese

6. Peanut butter (really though, who doesn't?)

7. Meat (any kind actually)

8. She really WANTS to like chocolate chip cookies (especially straight out of the oven) and mint chocolate chip ice cream, but no chocolate for Ginny. :)

OK, so most dogs will eat just about anything, our sweet puppy does not like the following:

1. Pickles

2. Strawberries

3. Cucumbers

4. Lobster

5. Asparagus

6. Zucchini

As you probably guessed, she will eat most things, even if it's not her favorite, these are just the things that she absolutely won't eat :)

Toilet Paper

2011-07-03T09:51:00.003-04:00

This story is 100% true. All of it.

Dave & I were out shopping at Costco. We needed toilet paper. Even though we live in a small apartment, Costco size TP is totally worth it because I hate always having disposable items on my shopping list. That's why I stopped buying paper napkins, but that's another story. So Dave is off looking at something else and I'm sent to fetch the TP. On my way towards that paper aisle, Dave reminds me to get the cheap stuff. (He's an economist, it's not his fault). So, I go and I start looking at all the different TP and the prices. Scott 1000 was by far the cheapest (even compared to Kirkland brand) and so that's what I got (mostly in fear that Dave would go back to look at the prices and discover that I didn't choose the absolute cheapest one).

We get home and he looks at the toilet paper.
Dave: "You got this one!?!? Why?? This is horrible!"
Me: "It's the cheapest. You said get the cheapest"
Dave: "But not that cheap!"
Me: "Too late now... besides, it can't be that bad"

We begin using said toilet paper and it is truly awful. It was 100% recycled fiber (whatever that means) and just plain awful. By the time we are finished using the first 3 rolls or so, we had a couple of the old stuff left. We saved that... boy did we save it! In fact, if we had guests over, we put away our cheap awful toilet paper and put out a roll of the "good stuff". Seriously. This is true. Though, once (and only once) we forgot to put out the good toilet paper and Dave was concerned... he said "do you think Jen noticed our crappy toilet paper?" ummm... not sure. We did not let it slip after that.

Move forward to May. Dave is graduating with his Master's Degree and his mom, dad & sister come out for the event. At this point, we are bout 80% through the bad TP and have about 3/4 of a roll of the "guest TP".
Dave says "should we put out the good toilet paper?"
Me: "No way! It's just family. Not anyone we need to impress. Besides, they can help us use up all this bad toilet paper!"
Dave: gives me a look.
Me: "Besides, we don't have much good stuff left, we'll have to go buy more if you want to use it while they are here."
Dave: "I guess so. Hopefully they won't notice"

If they noticed how crappy our TP was, they didn't mention it. It might have been said behind our backs, but I can deal with that.

At our most recent trip to Costco. I declare, "We are getting good toilet paper, and I don't care how much it costs". We both laughed. It took us forever to get through that stuff! One mistake I'll never make again.

But this all brings me back to when I was a kid... probably in middle school or something like that. We were all in front of the TV watching StarTrek and a Charmin commercial comes on, you know, the one withe the Bear in the forest with the newspaper and his roll of huggably soft toilet paper. Anyways, dad, being the funny one, says, "Ya, like I look for comfort when I'm in the toilet". (Insert 4 kids laughing). But seriously dad, I do. I didn't before, but I've been to the other side and back. It's way more important than you might think!

Gluten Free Cereals

2011-06-20T19:20:00.004-04:00

So, many of you know that I'm a Celiac (meaning I can't eat wheat/barley/rye products) and I'm here to update you on the cereal situation. I am a cereal fanatic. It's what I like to eat in the mornings. That is going to have to change, mostly because it's not the healthiest choice since there's not a significant amount of protein in cereal, but every now and then (AKA: every other day) it's alright. I'm here to tell you what gluten free cereals taste good and which ones are crap.

Believe it or not, until recently, NOTHING from Kellogs brand was gluten free because ALL of there cereals have malt in them (malt is derived from barley and therefore not ok for me to consume). Even things that you think should be ok were not... like Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies. Oh well. It's all just refined crap anyways!

Here we go:

GOOD:

1. Nature's Path: Organic Vanilla Sunrise (my new favorite- similar to Honey Bunches of Oats but vanilla flavored and better for you)

2. Rice/ Cinnamon Chex

3. Kix/Berry Kix/Honey Kix (if you're not that sensitive to gluten, technically these are GF, but there could be issues of cross-contamination from other products produced in the same facility)

4. Cocoa/Fruity Pebbles (Not very good for you... but still... yum)

OK:

1. Corn/Honey Chex

2. Enjoy Life Very Berry Crunch Granola (GF granola just isn't quite the same... this one is OK compared to the other one I tried)

3. Basic gluten free corn flakes are ok... just boring

5. Puffins Crunchy Cocoa

Haven't Tried but want to:

1. Kellogs GF Brown Rice Krispies

2/3. Nature's Path- Whole O's & Mesa Sunrise

4. Quinoa flakes (or some variety)

BAD:

1. Glutino's-- ALL VARIETIES ARE AWFUL!

(don't even get me started... they tease you like they are Cheerio's, but they are just plain awful)

2. Enjoy Life Foods Perky's Crunchy Rice (these are sooo dense, they are comparable to 3. GrapeNuts. OK for yogurt but not with milk and a spoon.)

4. Bakery on Maine Granola

5. Puffins Honey Rice (there are other varieties I haven't tried, but these were like pure sugar)

Welcome June!

2011-06-01T09:16:00.000-04:00

Well, it is officially June... we can wear white shoes and white pants and skirts... summer is here! But I am loaded down with work, this will not be a summer of fun for me. Nope. Gotta write that thesis! I'm "graduating" this Sunday, a little premature, but there you go, since I'm not submitting my thesis until July and defending later that month. WOW, only about 1.5 months to go... crazy!! I started the PhD program July 6th 2005 and I will have been in the PhD program for 6 years this July. I'd like to say the time flew, but it didn't. This has probably been the longest 6 years of my life. It has been a tumultuous journey filled with ups and downs of research, love and friends. Filled with anxiety and stress, not only about my own work, but with some serious health issues I've been dealing with the last two years.

Writing my dissertation has been slow. I don't have a job lined up, so I'm not super motivated to move on. PLUS, we're getting married in October, so that's another distraction hanging around me ALL the time! I am excited to dig in and get the meat of my thesis written! Wish me luck!

Save the Date's

2011-05-28T11:10:00.000-04:00

Save the Date's are out. I sent them out in April. I looked online and found it difficult to find a design that I liked, so I set out to design my own. Well, a perfectionist like myself is never satisfied... you have no idea what I went through! Dave finally started telling me he liked them all because there were too many to choose from. The winning design was very different. The photo was taken in Balboa Park at the Organ Pavillion during a family photo shoot that my sister-in-law got my parents as a Christmas gift. Each of the four kids had their pictures taken with their respective others and we took some family shots, all eleven of us! I did all of the designs in Photoshop, I'm getting pretty good at that, but though I thought that I constrained the picture size so all the ratios would be the same, it seems that our heads got stretched a tad bit anyways. Oh well. We finally had the printing done at VistaPrint for about 0.22 cents a piece. The printing turned out great, especially for the price! They were small, the size of a business card, but I didn't want anything huge anyways.

Enjoy looking at the designs! I had fun with the process!

These were the 2nd and 3rd place designs:

May Happenings

2011-05-27T18:46:00.000-04:00

Yes, it's true, I'm a bit late... but I hope that you will forgive me since it has been, by far, the busiest of months!

Dave graduated from Northeastern with his M.A. in Economics!
I am so proud of Dave! He did something that many don't have the courage to do. Immediately after high school... well almost immediately... he joined the Navy and through his diligence, strong will and pure amazingness became a SEAL. He served for about 5.5 years and decided it was time to move on and he went to college. For most, college is a given: graduate high school, go to college. Period. I bet you've never thought about what it might be like to start college when you're 25 and graduate when you're 30. It's tough when you have the awareness that most people your age have a "real job" and make money. It's tougher when you think about how you're going to make up for "lost time" (which, by the way, is absolutely NOT LOST!). And it's the toughest when you're surrounded by "kids" 18-22 years old who haven't really grown up yet or experienced much and who you wouldn't necessarily choose to be your new best buddies. But Dave did it all... sure, there were times he considered changing course, but in the end, decided that the degree was necessary. Last May, he graduated Summa Cum Laude with his B.S. in Economics and this year, graduated with an overall 3.6 GPA in some pretty tough economics coursework. That my friends, is victory! He is amazing. I love him. There are many reasons for that.

We also had a lovely time with his family who came out for the occasion. We went to see the Wayside Inn where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote "Paul Revere's Ride".

I went with Dave's dad to Sturbridge Village, New England's largest outdoor museum set to the time of Colonial Massachusetts. That was pretty cool!

Dave took his dad for a skydive... talk about pressure!

And we had a fun lobster feast!

Busy but great month!

Color Freak Out

2011-04-27T11:22:00.000-04:00

I'm not going to lie, I had a small worry-fest this morning. When we went to go get tux's for the guys, the lady made a big deal about not mixing ivory and yellow. I had never heard that before and... well... my dress is ivory and I'm planning on having yellow flowers. Argh... Nobody told me this before! Apparently, white and yellow are go-withs but not ivory and yellow. Ok, then I start re-thinking everything... this very quickly becomes a slippery slope with me because I'm the type to over-think my color palette's. This is my original palette and after using this awesome website, I'm think if I change anything, it will be my "neutral".

or even a lighter aqua... the yellow is negotiable since flowers can't be any ONE color... but I was shooting for a deeper fall yellow.

I love aqua... love it. I think muted aqua works well as a neutral color and would only be on the table cloths.

This is option 2, changing the aqua to a grey/silver. The only thing about this is that I can't really visualize it and it really isn't me and if I were to change that, I'd just drop it altogether and stick with blue, yellow and ivory.

Although if I had my druthers I'd have gone with more of a peach, because I love peach. But it was veto'd by the groom... a little too pink for his taste. I get that. Plus, it really is more of a spring/summer color.

Anyways, I think the florist talked about using some circus roses in the bridesmaids bouquets.

I love the look of them... I'm having a hard time picturing it. I'm sure it will turn out great.

What it means is that my color palette is more like this one, which is actually my original idea since orange/persimmon and yellow flowers are so readily available in the fall.

What's a wedding without the occasional second-guessing of one's choices right?

The best $40 I've ever spent!

2011-04-20T17:57:00.000-04:00

I'm not the kind of girl that thinks it's OK to stink, even in a cast, or become totally vegetative, even on crutches. In anticipation of my foot surgery, I bought a DryPro Half Leg Cast Cover for the primary reason of being able to bathe properly. Most of you know that I'm also an avid swimmer, so being able to stay active was also critical so that I wouldn't go stir crazy sitting at home working on my dissertation.

In the shower, my DryPro works like a champ. I've never had any leaks. In the pool, I've only had one minor leak and I'm 99% sure it was because I didn't suction out all of the air first... not to mention, I was a bit overzealous in that I refused to give up my flip turns simply because I had a cast on. Flip turns are critical to not losing momentum in the pool.

Anyways, for those of you unsure about the DryPro, here are my how-to pictures. It is a product that I would recommend to everyone with a cast... especially if you like to stay active or simply for summertime fun.

This is the Dry Pro Cast cover ready to be put on. I didn't have any issues getting it over my first cast, but my boot is significantly bulkier and it's a little harder to get this on and off. The good news is that I'm OK to shower without my boot, but swimming is still out of the question, so I don't have to put it on and off too much anymore.

Once the DryPro is on, attach the bulb to the valve on the front.

Get ready to pump. It takes about 20-25 pumps to suction out all of the air from the boot so you get a good vacuum suction on it. Not to shabby for being able to shower!

**Warning** Puppies may not like that there is a slight noise when pumping air out. They like it even less when they can feel that stream of air!

I'm not in a cast here, but it was my first day out of the cast, so at this point I was still wearing my DryPro in the shower. But it looks pretty tight on the foot. When the bulb won't re-fill with anymore air, you're done pumping. Just remove the bulb and cap the valve. (This isn't complicated. Air doesn't rush in when the bulb is removed so it really is foolproof!)

And we're ready for water!

Foot Surgery

2011-04-14T10:50:00.000-04:00

On March 21st I had a dorsiflexion osteotomy of the first metatarsal on my right foot. They basically cut a wedge out of the bone in my foot that leads to the big toe. By cutting out the wedge and re-joining the bone it should decrease the severity of my arch and by doing so should get rid of all of the problems that I was having.

The problems started about two years ago when I had started training to do mini triathalons. I was running and biking a lot, and as a result, I had some severe foot pains. I found out that the cause of the pain was because fluid was accumulating in my toe joints along with sesamoiditis with periostitis (just like shin splints, but in the foot). Although these were the symptoms I had, the real underlying cause was because of my “pes cavus” foot type (a congenital foot deformity of extremely high arches in the feet). The doctor said that, simply because of the shape of my foot, it was a matter of time until I was going to be experiencing difficulties with my feet and that my feet were never meant to run and that I should switch to low impact activities permanently.

I went to see a podiatrist and then a foot & ankle orthopedic specialist, and after two years of trying orthodics and stretching and no running, there was little improvement with my foot pain. We decided surgery was not only the best option for me, but also the only “permanent” option. With non-surgical treatments I could be back in pain after any trigger.

Right now, I am completely non-weight bearing on my right foot for 6-8 weeks, which means I am on crutches. I am getting my splint off on April 13th and will be in a removable boot, which should help me sleep better at night. I should be off the crutches in time for my graduation! Pain was fairly severe the first two weeks following my surgery but has subsided and I am doing well.

3 days post-op

I went in 3 days after surgery because the resident doctor who assisted my surgeon put the splint on incorrectly. My foot was not in a neutral position so I had some numbness from my knee down. It was extremely painful, but after getting the new splint, everything was A-OK.

3 weeks post-op
This sore on my heel has been the root of most of my pain the last week and a half. It's hard to describe, but the pain was excruciating. The splint didn't move much and as a result, I got this sore. I am now in a removable splint and it is healing and I am not hurting so much anymore.

Stitches are out! Now with the removable cast, I can wash my leg and shave!! :)

Aisle Decorations

2011-04-12T09:05:00.000-04:00

I have been racking my head trying to make decisions about what I'm going to do to decorate the wedding aisle for our ceremony. I want it to be nice, but the ceremony is short, so I don't want to spend an arm and a leg just to make it look pretty. I'm going for cheap but elegant. I want the look to be as elegant and chic as my gown and the BM dresses (think ruched satin). I think I've ditched the pomander idea mostly because of cost (with real flowers) and time with paper flowers. I'm trying to write my PhD dissertation. I don't need 600 paper flowers looming over my head. These are my ideas so far.

The first idea is tying pails filled with baby's breath to the sides of the chairs like they show here. I found pails similar to the ones shown for about $2.25 each. Not too bad, but then add the cost of baby's breath.

...or, we could put the pails on the ground. The cheapest I've seen these is $3.00 each. Not awful.

I also think that jars on chairs would be cute too! You can get a case of 12 mason jars for $9 (0.75 cents a piece) I like that number!!

We could also use paper cones instead of buying jars or buckets...

an even simpler idea is to just tie a small bunch of flowers to the chairs with ribbon. (When I say small, I mean much smaller than this picture here. Maybe one yellow daisy or rose with babys breath.)

Lastly, the cost and time-efficient alternative to pomanders, is to use eyelet paper lanterns and hang them on the chairs (with plenty of ribbon) to give it a whimsical look. Each white eyelet lantern is about $2 each plus ribbon. This is the only non-floral option that I have.

What do you think??

Tissue Paper Pomander: Experiment 1

2011-04-11T10:57:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty sure that Martha Stewart started the whole paper pom craze. Honestly, I think they are great. Theoretically easy to do and easy on the wallet, they can really add a nice touch to any party. They have spilled into the wedding world, of which I seem to be deeply submerged into, and people are doing some really creative things with modifications of these.

For example:
Can you believe that the pomanders in the picture below are made from tissue paper? I think that they are amazing!! I originally got the idea from http://ruffledblog.com but the link seems to be broken. Though these images come from the website.

Thinking I could save some serious cash by making these beauties instead of using real flowers (I mean, seriously, who would know?!?) I set out to try to make them myself. Most of you know that I am a scientist, so you would know that I test things in a stepwise fashion. I don't just do it all at once. First step was to see if I could make a tissue paper pom. The disclaimer here is that I did not have all the right supplies. I used some really non-flexible ribbon instead of wire to fasten the paper. I also had sup-par instructions that failed to mention how many sheets of tissue to use.

They did not turn out! I went to the craft store, spent 50 cents, bought myself some wire, but I still need to try it again. I will keep you posted

Logos

2011-03-29T14:16:00.001-04:00

I've been working on some logos because at our reception venue they have a light and you can provide a logo and they shine it on the dance floor... and I can also make a rubber stamp with our logo on it and use it for miscellaneous wedding things. :) I've designed a few. Tell me which one you like the best!

Logo 1: I like this simple design... I saw one similar that was called "enclosed together". I thought that was cute and wanted to try to make something similar to avoid paying the $60 to have someone else do it for me.

Logo 2: I originally wanted the text here with some whimsical brackets above and below the text but was unable to find said brackets. I settled for this "tag" look instead.

Logo 3: This is a very classic style logo with our names and last initial. I tried just initials but couldn't come up with anything that I really loved, so I did this instead. I like it. I think the double outline with dot accent inner really gives it some zest without being overly done or plain.

Logo 4: I think this one is my favorite... but I really can't decide. I love the flare on the ends with a very classic text. It's not as "square" as the others. This one is definitely high on my list!

Logo 5: This is a classic monogram logo. I'm not sure I love the style, but I had to make one... everyone else is.

Logo 6a: Another version of a classic monogram logo without the surname initial. I really like the simplicity of it. It's very nice. Easy to use this anywhere.

Logo 6b: I tried polka dots around the initials. I think I would have preferred smaller dots, but this is what I had for clip art.

Logo 6c: I am using these dahlia's on my wedding invitations (more on that later) so I thought it would be cool to see what they look like together. I like it, but I would want to do the flower in another color and the initials in black. This one probably won't make the stamp, but I like the concept!

Logo 6d: I wanted to try a border that was a little more whimsical and came up with this. I like it, but not so much with the formality of the font that I chose. Oh well.

It's official...

2011-03-13T11:48:00.000-04:00

Well ladies and gentlemen, it's official. I'll be defending my dissertation in late July/early August this summer! That means that my committee said "go" and all is well with the world. I have a few things to wrap up with my paper I still need to submit, but otherwise, I'm good to go. My TRAC meeting went well, but I'll say this, I was surprisingly more sensitive than I expected to be when we were taking a good hard look at my work. I guess when you pour your heart and soul into a project for 4 years you take some of these comments more personally than you might if you had nonchalantly floated through graduate research only to eventually arrive at the end of the tunnel expecting them to hand you a PhD. Not me. I agonized over every experiment I did. Many of them I thought up when I was preparing for my qualifying exam in my 2nd year. I am proud to say that I actually did those experiments and they are significantly contributing to my dissertation research. I'll have to toughen up for my defense.

I haven't had a perfect track record with grad school. Like most, it came with ups and downs... but I will finish. Thank God.

Can I graduate? Pretty please...

2011-03-10T08:38:00.000-05:00

My life is never quite in sync with what the world thinks it should be and it seems as though this year, March is coming in like a lamb and going out like a lion. Not the reverse. Let me explain. The first week of March, I'm cool, collected, a slave to my job but overall simply focused instead of out-of-control busy. This week has been more along the lines of knowing how much I need to get done and oscillating between bursts of intense production and procrastination. I am going to go ahead and tell you that at 8:15 this morning, it's all changing. Today is the dreaded turning point of March when instead of being a nice spring lamb, it turns into a raging lion. Which will continue until I've finished my dissertation.

Tomorrow is my year 6 PhD TRAC meeting where I meet with my thesis committee and tell them all the things I've accomplished over the last year and please please please can I graduate? 6 years working on a PhD is still less than the 6.5 year average at UMass. I guess I can be glad about that... but it's been a LONG road. I am ready to move on. In order to graduate you need to publish a first-author peer-reviewed publication, minimum one, preferably two. But when you work with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, you take what you can get. I'll have one first-author publication and a couple second-author papers. I am absolutely satisfied with that. The problem is, my paper isn't published yet. Actually, it's not even submitted. The reason it's not submitted is because I was trying out one last thing (famous last words of a scientist) and actually got something to work... on Monday. I rushed to repeat the experiment and am waiting 2 weeks for the colonies to grow on plates, count them and submit the paper. This last experiment really boosts my paper and thesis quite a bit. I identified novel aspects of innate immune mechanisms contributing to the control of M.tb in host cells (theoretically, although all experiments were done in vitro) and I am certain that my thesis committee will be thrilled. My hope is that they will give me the 'go ahead' to write and defend my dissertation, but I think that will commence once this paper is finally submitted. My advisor is confident that my time has come. I hope he's right.

I have a lot to do for tomorrow...

Never again Borders Bookstore, never again.

2011-02-27T17:54:00.000-05:00

An important notice: If you tend to misplace receipts or just lose things in general, DO NOT BUY ANYTHING AT BORDERS!!! We just tried to exchange a book in MINT condition with the Borders barcode still on the book (knowing that we'd probably only get store credit) and they wouldn't take it without the receipt. Even though we bought it less than a month ago using my Borders rewards card! Seriously!?!? Horrible customer service. What's the point of even having the stupid rewards card then!?!?!

As you can understand, not only did I not get to return my Spain travel book, but we walked out without buying the Brazil book. But, we found them on Amazon.com for $10 cheaper with free shipping, so maybe it's better this way...

The best reason's NOT to continue doing academic science research

2011-02-09T09:34:00.000-05:00

This is an excerpt from a "Postdoc Fact Sheet" that I downloaded from the National Postdoc Association wesbite. This information was updated a year ago, but you can consider it extremely accurate since in December 2010 Senate decided that post-docs only get a 1% increase in stipends despite already being grossly under-paid. Mom, Dad, I know there was hope that I might find a cure for some crazy disease and help thousands of people, but it doesn't pay enough.

Food for Thought:
Quick Facts about Postdoctoral Scholars (based on available data)
• A postdoctoral scholar (“postdoc”) is an individual holding a doctoral degree who is engaged in a temporary period of mentored research and/or scholarly training for the purpose of acquiring the professional skills needed to pursue a career path of his or her choosing.
• According to the Science and Engineering Indicators 2008: “Recent S&E doctorate holders who entered academic employment at research universities were more likely to be in postdoc than in faculty positions.”
• Traditionally, institutions have not kept records of postdoctoral scholars (although more and more institutions are doing so today); as a result, it is not clear how many postdoctoral scholars are in the United States—but the National Science Foundation (NSF) has estimated that there are from 43,000 to 89,000 postdocs in the United States. The NSF emphasizes that these numbers are estimates, because its surveys focus mainly on postdoctoral scholars who have earned their Ph.D. in the United States and thus do not include representation of international postdoctoral scholars who did not complete their degree in the United States.
• The majority of postdoctoral scholars (estimated at 60 percent today) are “international postdocs,” here on temporary visas.
• The number of science and engineering postdocs with temporary visas at U.S. universities has tripled in the past 20 years, from 8,900 in 1985 to 27,000 in 2005.
• In spite of holding a Ph.D., the median salary of postdoctoral scholars is $38,000 a year—far below the median wage of individuals who hold bachelor’s degrees.
• The average postdoctoral scholar puts in significant “overtime,” working 51 hours a week, although they are not paid for overtime.
• The average postdoctoral scholar, or “postdoc,” is in his/her early thirties and married.
• There is a good chance that this scholar has at least one child, although at least one survey indicates that many delay having children because of the cost.
• While the majority of postdoctoral scholars are in the biomedical fields, these scholars are also found in the social sciences, mathematical and computer sciences, engineering, and the arts and humanities
• Where do scholars go after the postdoc? Forty-one percent find careers in business/industry; percent in government; and 49 percent in education (includes all positions in education, administrative, tenure-track, and other).

Let your colors shine

2011-02-07T15:19:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited to share my wedding colors with you! I've been working crazy hard on my wedding so that when I start writing my dissertation I won't have to worry about it. One of the hardest things that I did was to pick colors. I FINALLY was able to do that but not until I had tried several different options! I'm so excited! I think that the colors are absolutely lovely! Aqua is the accent color (think tablecloths) with yellow and blue being the main colors for everything else. Tell me what you think!

Winter Time

2011-02-07T09:58:00.000-05:00

Have I told you yet that Ginny LOVES the snow.... seriously, she can't get enough. We bring her to a park in our town that is just a huge field and the dogs can run run run, and that's exactly what she does. Last Thursday she was spayed and so she's been cooped up for 11 days! She is going stir crazy!!!! At first she was just uncomfortable and in pain, not to mention the cone of shame we kept on her so she wouldn't lick the stitches. We had tons of fresh powder from about 3 storms that hit that she would have LOVED to go play in. Instead, she's been bothering us to take her out every hour so she can "hunt" because she's tired of being inside. The worst part about it is that we haven't been able to even play with her much in the house. She wasn't supposed to jump or run at all. That lasted about 3 days, then she was back to new (she thought). Today is the day, she will get her stitches from the surgery out. YAY!!! I'll be working, but hopefully Dave will bring her to do some running!

Sad Puppy

Really Sad Puppy

Puppy smart enough to know that the cone of shame comes off when we take her outside to do her business.

But seriously, we have been absolutely SLAMMED with snow. Slammed! There hasn't been a full work-week since Christmas. This week just might break that streak though. Snow is expected for tomorrow, but only 1-2" and a high of 32. Nice and warm! Is it sad that when it's 32 I feel like I don't really need my heavy jacket?? Starkly contrasted to Thursday, where the high is expected to be 19, I will be doubly-bundled up! Since I don't know where I'll be next year, I'm trying to enjoy ALL of the seasons of New England. So far, so good. This is probably the most intense winter we've had here in terms of precipitation, although similar to my first year here 5 years ago... maybe nature is rounding everything out for me as I prepare for a new adventure!

Engaged, December 21 2010

2011-02-06T15:25:00.000-05:00

I'd like to announce- blog style- that Dave and I are officially engaged. To many this is old news, but I figured I should write up a little something. I did know that it was coming, but I didn't know when. I thought he was going to propose when we were home for Christmas, but it ended up being a day and a half before we left for the holidays. Overall, the evening was very low key. We went to dinner at Stephanies on Newbury for dinner and then cruised Boston Public Garden where there were lines of Christmas trees lit up with twinkle lights. It was when we were cruising the pretty, albeit cold, garden when Dave got down on one knee and said, "well Michelle Hartman..." and held out the ring. He actually forgot to say the words "will you marry me" but that's OK because as it turns out, I forgot to say "Yes!" I just kept saying "I wasn't expecting this" at which point he stood up and said, "you haven't said yes yet!" haha... oops! We didn't have a camera and so I waited until I found a passer-by that looked friendly enough to ask to snap a quick photo of us with an iPhone. I made a couple of attempts which Dave intercepted because he was worried that they looked too much like people who would want to steal my ring! haha... that made me laugh. I finally asked a guy who looked friendly. He was so excited for us! It was cute. He said, "Oh my gosh, Congratulations!! Can I give you a hug?" Who can say no to that!?! Hugs all around! :) He proceeded to take about 7 pictures, determined to get a good one despite the lack of light, and he went on his way. Well, that's the end of it! It was very nice. We went home and opened a bottle of champagne. All in all, a great time.

We went home to California almost right after that and got to celebrate with our families. It was absolutely lovely. My mom and dad threw an engagement party for us. We weren't sure who would be able to make it because it was in between Christmas and New Years, but we had a great turn out! My Aunt Listy and Uncle Bob wrote us a song to the melody of a couple Christmas carols that was so nice! Such a fun party!! It's been plan plan plan ever since, but we are sooo excited!!! :)

Celebrating with his mom, Denise and sister, Colleen.

Here are some pictures from the engagement party. Enjoy!

2011, a BIG year!

2011-02-06T14:36:00.000-05:00

Well everyone, as I'm sure you know by now, This year will bring a lot of new changes and a lot of exciting times! I'm sorry that it's February 6th and I'm just not posting regularly. Part of that is because I am trying to graduate!!! I have a thesis committee meeting on March 11th and I am desperately hoping that on that day, I will be given permission to write my dissertation!!! If you don't know, to graduate with a PhD in the sciences, you don't just reach your 4th year and automatically get your diploma. Noooooo not at all like that! A committee, chosen by myself and my thesis advisor, decides when I've sufficiently proven that I deserve a PhD. I'm lucky because I've got great faculty on my committee and they are all rooting for me to be finished soon! I'll say this. I don't think I deserve a PhD at all. I think I'm lucky to finish this darn thing and am wildly exstatic that I've fooled them enough to think that I might actually be worthy! But don't tell them that or they might change their minds! So. Big year. If I start writing my dissertation in March, I will defend in July, although I will walk in the commencement ceremony on June 5th, also my dad's birthday. Happy Birthday Dad, I'm actually graduating!!! I hope. So keep those fingers crossed.

Other events going on in 2011 include Dave's GRADUATION with his Masters degree in Economics (May), my GRADUATION with my PhD in July. We are GETTING MARRIED (more in the next post) in October. We will find jobs. ???? Aaaahhh... seriously, why do you have to stress me out like that!?! Jobs, well, I hope so. Where? No idea. We hope to go abroad. We'll see. If we don't go abroad, we'll be moving west. Perhaps not CA, but definitely closer. What will we do? Whoa... way too soon to be asking that!! You think that last question induced stress, well, the "What" question absolutely paralyzes me. Let's not go there. Anyways, all together it implies that we will also be MOVING.

Graduations, moving and getting married. Like I said. Big year 2011!!!

Montreal & Munich

2010-12-20T13:29:00.000-05:00

En route to Athens, we had about a 10 hour layover in Montreal. We decided that instead of sitting in an airport all day that we would adventure off to Montreal, where neither of us had ever been, and see the sights. We saw a few things. We walked all day long (which helped us sleep on the overnight plane ride to Athens) and that was about it. One of the coolest things that we saw was the Notre Dame Cathedral. Wow! It was incredible. We spent a significant amount of time admiring all of the hand-crafted woodwork that was inside the cathedral and the stained glass and the list goes on. Montreal had lots to see. There is a wonderful river walk where you can peacefully enjoy the city's beauty. There was a restaurant and art district where we leisurely strolled in the afternoon. It was nice. I'm glad we went. I'm not sure I'll ever take the time to go back. Although we only saw downtown, I'm satisfied enough to say I've been there!

Munich was on our way home from Greece. We were in the city for about 5 hours. The train to and from the airport took up about 2 of those hours, but it was still better than sitting in the airport. We went to Marienplatz and wandered around there. I wanted Dave to see the famous glockenspiel and take him to eat at the famous Hofbräuhaus. Well, it had been over a year since I'd been to Munich and so my instinct said to go a certain way. So we started walking to this brewery and Dave looked at the map and said, "I think we're going the wrong way". Well, I decided that he was probably right so we walked to the place where he said we should aim and ended up at the train station (hofbahnhof) instead! Oops! Oh well. We hopped on a quick subway back to Marienplatz and before we knew it, we were eating at our destination. It was nice. Hopefully we'll make it back sometime!

Athens

2010-12-20T13:13:00.000-05:00

OK, back for more! We loved Athens. Our biggest regret was not spending more time there. We spent half a day there when we flew into Greece and almost a full day there on our way out. I was anxious to go there because that is where my Grandmother was born. We loved all the rich history, the way you could get lost in the plaka area and all the smells from the restaurants . I loved seeing the ancient ruins. The temple of the Apollo Zeus & the Acropolis were amazing. We were there on a full-moon and we got to tour the Acropolis at night. It was crazy packed with people!!! It was wild. Dave was amazing with all the great photo's he took at sunset at each place. Our last night in Greece we stayed at the Athens Gate hotel, you can see from the nite-time picture below that we had an amazing view of the Temple of Apollo Zeus. The pictures say it all. We ate in cafe's, we toured ancient ruins, we had a great time!

Spetses, Greece

2010-12-20T11:02:00.000-05:00

We were on Spetses the longest compared to any other location. In some ways, that was nice because we'd been doing a lot of bouncing around. But the down-side was that I was there for work (although, if it weren't for work, we wouldn't have been able to afford such a vacation since the air fare was quite expensive). I was in Spetses for a Host-Microbes Interactions course. I don't regret going, but it was geared more for younger PhD and master students, not those about to finish their PhD! But no matter, I did enjoy it and met some nice people.

Spetses was where we relaxed. We didn't hurry to see every site that there was to see. But we did get out almost every day. David spent his days exploring and reading in the sun while I was away. It was a nice time on a beautiful island. It was by far the greenest island we had been to. The most lovely thing about it was all the secluded beaches. David rented a motor scooter and scouted out the best places for us to go on my daily 4-hour mid-day break from conferencing. We did a lot of snorkeling in these seemingly un-touched coves... it was wonderful!

Hydra (Pronounced "Heedra")

2010-12-20T10:47:00.000-05:00

When we arrived at the port of Hydra, we fell in love. This island, free of all cars (with the exception of the occasional trash truck), was wonderful. People took their little sail boats everywhere and it was calm and relaxed. This was the last island that we stayed at for "holiday" before my conference began on the island Spetses. The crazy thing about Hydra is that it is totally infested with cats. Most are well behaved and they don't seem to bother the greeks, but when you're eating at an outdoor cafe, they beg like dogs do for food. They rub up against your leg so that you know that they are there and they travel in packs of at least five. We weren't too keen on the cats, but it was part of Hydra. We mostly relaxed. We spent some time swimming in the beautiful water. There weren't any beaches, just concrete slabs with ladders going into the water. Not great for sun-bathing but for an afternoon dip, it was perfect!

Fira, Santorini

2010-12-20T10:33:00.000-05:00

Well, I know it's been wayyy too long, and truth be told, I have nothing but the typical excuses. but here we are. The second town that we stayed in on the island of Santorini is Fira. Actually, our amazing hotel, Anteliz Hotel Apartments, was situated exactly between Fira and Firastefani. We walked to both towns daily. What was interesting about Fira, is that when we arrived, a cloud arrived with us and it wouldn't go away (see pictures below). But it was still nice once we figured out how to navigate this truly confusing city! The night life was bustling and the shops were full. It was spectacular. One view that I particularly loved was this view of the caldera. This is an amazing view at night, the blackness is the water. All you see are cliffs with lights from hotels and from restaurants. Across from these cliffs was the famous volcano (which only looks like a small hill in the ocean) but nonetheless, very cool.

The beaches in Santorini were not great. They looked dirty and were hot to stand on, all due to the dark red sand. But we decided that we had to go anyways. The beach that we decided to go to was pretty packed. What's interesting is that young girls do not wear tops to their bikini bottoms until they are a bit older. Sometimes pushing the puberty line... Dave and I found ourselves thinking "how can that father be okay with his 12 year old daughter walking around without a top on?!?" It was interesting. Speedo's were definitely more of the norm over there for men.

Oia, Santorini

2010-10-04T08:41:00.009-04:00

The first town we stayed in when we arrived in Santorini was Oia (pronounced "Eeea"). This is the town with the perfect situation to watch one of the best sunsets in the world. We could not have asked for a better hotel than the one that we stayed in. It had the perfect view, had a nice swimming pool and was just lovely.

As I'm sure that you can tell from the pictures, our hotel was on the side of a cliff. Our room was literally a cave. That was cool. What was not cool was getting to our hotel from the main roads. David forgot to check his e-mail to see if we were sent any directions, so all we had was an address. We couldn't find it. I finally insisted that I was going to run inside the travel agency directly in front of us and ask for directions. They told us to go to another travel agency who will take care of us. Huh. Didn't know we needed 'taking care of'. So, we found our way to agency #2. Without explanation, they took our credit cards and passports and told us that we were now checked in and that all we had to do was wait for her "colleague" to arrive to take us to our room. Really? What room? We did not see a hotel, let alone anywhere that looked like the hotel we booked online. But we waited. Soon enough a man, maybe 50 years old, arrives to take us. He doesn't speak English. But he smiled and we went. David and I had absolutely no idea what we were getting into and we had both our suitcases with all of our things plus souvenirs we picked up along the way. Then, he insists on taking the HEAVY suitcase which he then proceeds to carry on his shoulders (mind you this thing weighs about 60 lbs). A human mule. We were going up and down the tiniest little walkways along the cliff of a volcano and this guy insists on carrying the heavy suitcase. David & I both feel terrible. Dave tried to insist that he should carry the heavy suitcase when we stopped for a break. Oh ya, did I mention it was crazy hot out? Ya. Well, the guy didn't let David take the bag. About 15 minutes later we arrive at our hotel. Except that it's just a room on the side of a cliff. It looked like a home by itself, not part of a complex. But he had a key, dropped us off and said c'ya! Huh. Ok. Well, it's a nice room with an amazing view... we're not going to complain. We're confused, but we're also thirsty. I finally tell David "those over there look painted just like ours... I bet that's our pool!" We go over there and sure enough, we were part of a hotel! And even better, that was our pool!! Hallelujah! We finally figured out where our breakfast would be served and where we check out. Which was the next day. If we had known what a trek it was, we would have stayed longer... but as it was there were more places to go. We did love it there. It was wonderful. (As a side note- we felt so bad about the suitcases that when evening came, we consolidated all we would need for 3 days for both of us into one suitcase and David carried the heavy one back to the rental car where it stayed until we reached Hydra. We didn't want that poor man to have to carry it again!)

The sunset was truly lived up to the hype. David is a wonderful photographer with these sunset photos but you'll have to trust me when I say that the photos absolutely don't do the scenery any justice.

The first night after sunset, we cruised the town. I was really wanting to see the "Caldera" at night (which is a fancy way of saying the "cliff on the side of the volcano"). It was pretty cool:

The goal of the first day in Santorini was to relax, enjoy the view and relax some more. We did "hike" down a bunch of stairs to go down to the harbor that was directly below us. We also cruised the town of Oia for a bit... here's what we saw:

Island Hopping: Naxos

2010-10-01T12:16:00.011-04:00

Sorry for the delay in writing more, but since we've come back from the trip, it's been go-go-go in the lab and on weekends, and the stories have taken the hit. But I made a promise and I will tell you all about our travels.

I will spend more time on Athens later, but the first "real" destination that we had decided on in Greece was the island Naxos. Naxos is one of the islands in the group called the Cyclades which tend to be more mountainous than most of the islands with the exception of the two volcanic islands in this archipelago. We spent three nights in Naxos and we don't regret it. Although we laughed when we read that these were supposed to be some of the best beaches in Greece and yet the sand paled in comparison to my beloved San Diego. But, we were determined to explore and see things and experience Greece- regardless if the beaches were lacking.

The first thing that we did when we arrived after settling in and going for a swim on the famous St. George's beach was that we went for a walk downtown and to see the Sanctuary of Apollo (see below). We went first in late afternoon but decided that pictures at sunset would be terrific, so we went and had a drink at a bar that had happy hour that was 12 hours long and then trekked back up for more photos. The pictures turned out wonderfully, thank you David! Here's some of what we saw:

Day 2 we rented Big Red. That little jeep took us all over the place. Literally. We went clear across a HUGE island on little dirt roads and through the towns where most of the people who live on Naxos live. (Side note- 85% of the population lives inland because there used to be a big pirate problem, so nobody wanted to live on the coast!) OK, back to the stories. So Dave really wanted to go and see Zeus's cave/mountain. He thought that we would climb the whole mountain in the middle of the day in full heat wearing Teva's. When I found out that it was a 3 hour hike up to the top and I was expected to climb Mt.Crazy, I veto'd the request and we hiked only the 30 minutes up to the cave. I love him, but you should have seen this mountain. It's so ridiculous that there isn't really a good trail that goes to the top. Not exactly a Michelle excursion. But here's some pictures from our hike and the famous cave.

The drive to the opposite end of the island was amazing and we ended up at a little beach with crystal blue water and almost nobody there except us and another car of expedition-ers determined to get their money's worth. We drove a lot of crazy roads, but saw some pretty cool sights:

We spent Day 3 exploring the West Coast of Naxos... more fun!

Stay tuned for my next posts about Santorini!

I'm Back

2010-09-13T08:08:00.007-04:00

Hi All, well, it's been a whirlwind. I've been gone since August 23rd for Greece and got back on September 10th 1.5 hours later than expected. The purpose for going to Greece was for a Host-Microbes Interactions course that I attended on Spetses that was from September 1-9. We traveled the 23rd, arriving in Athens mid-day on the 24th with a 10 hour layover in Montreal, Quebec. We explored Quebec and slept on the overnight flight to Athens. On the return trip on September 10th, we had a 5 hour layover in Munich, Germany and took an hour subway ride into the city, walked around briefly, ate lunch at the Hofbräuhaus, then returned to the airport for our 8 hour flight back to Boston that was extended to about a 9.5 hour flight because of a rattle that was discovered to be an empty cargo bin in the belly of the plane. That flight was painful. It's a 7 hour time difference between Athens and Boston and boy have I been tired. Around 7pm, I'm ready to crash but I do hope that soon I will be able to adjust.

Traveling in Greece is interesting. The good news is that since the recent Olympic Games, the subway has been updated and there is a subway that connects the airport to the rest of the city. It's about a 45 minute ride but very cheap. It was 3 Euro's for a 24 hour pass which is much better than 50 Euro's for a taxi to the airport. We walked almost everywhere and had good luck finding most things. Traveling to the islands was all by high-speed ferries. The ferries are all enclosed with seating like an airplane but nobody sits in their assigned seats and you can walk around freely without problems. We liked it a lot. The rides were long, up to 5 hours from Santorini back to the main port near Athens called Pireaus. But overall, very efficient.

We had 3 vehicles that we rented in Greece. We were very glad that we rented vehicles, it gave us a lot more freedom to explore and, in the case of Santorini, it ended up being cheaper to rent the car for 4 days than to pay for the 3 taxi's we would have needed while we were there.

"Big Red"

"Little Yellow"

"Speed Racer"

More about our adventures in later posts... stay tuned!

Indians on Lake Quinsigamond

2010-08-09T18:39:00.003-04:00

Not too long ago, Dave and I were out on the canoe with some friends and a group of kids were shouting "Go Canada" at us because of the maple leaf on the side of the canoe. We had joked about how it would be fun to dress up like Native Indians and go out on the lake and paddle around... just for giggles. We finally did it. It was pretty funny to see people's reactions. Lots of fun...

Barbecue Sauce

2010-07-18T11:03:00.004-04:00

Imagine. 5:50 am. Mr. Wonderful needs to get moving because it's an hour drive to work. He struggles to get off of the futon and into the shower where he belongs. I'm in the light beige carpeted kitchen putting together his incredibly predictable lunch. One sandwich included yesterday's barbecued pork required barbecue sauce and nothing else. Got the bottle. Gave it a shake. Lid wasn't on tightly. Barbecue sauce went a-flyin. Yup. Not the first time I've spilled something similar in color all over the carpet (except last time it was canned pumpkin down the staircase). Anyhow, boy looks up at me from the floor he's scrubbing and says "this is going to be my life, isn't it? I should invest in a carpet-cleaninig company". I have the tendency to spill. Oopsies! But hopefully we'll never have a carpeted kitchen!!

Lights

2010-07-10T11:19:00.003-04:00

For those of you who know me well, you know that I just love "twinkle lights". I love walking around at night and seeing lights on trees and in gardens. Like the garden below with the lanterns and lights... if I walked into that garden, to me, that would be so magical! Something about it brings out the hopeless romantic in me.

Well, I know that my little string of lights doesn't look like much, but last night, Dave and I had some friends over and we were eating by the lake with these lights on and it was just wonderful. I think it adds some really great ambiance and is simply fabulous. There's something nice about sitting around a table with a simple canopy of lights strung above...

Fireflies

2010-06-22T19:57:00.002-04:00

Last night, my friend Dilenna from San Diego came over because she was in the area visiting her brother here so she stayed a night at my place. We ate dinner on the patio and had a lovely evening. After dinner, she and Dave and I took the canoe out to go watch the sunset on the lake. The view was blocked by trees, but it was fun anyhow. There were some "crazies" out on their motor boat and started shouting at us "Go Canada!" and "yeah, Olypians!" and "Maple leaf!" all just because there was a maple leaf on the side of our canoe. I thought it was pretty funny so I played into their little comedy... why not? Anyhow, we got back to the dock and unloaded and there were fireflies everywhere out on the lawn. I'd never seen fireflies before and they were soooo cool!!! If I hadn't been getting attacked by mosquito's the size of small birds, I might have stayed out and watched them longer. I didn't think that I was going to be able to get a picture and Dave insisted that "it's all about timing". Well, I gave up and he got the picture!!! There is only one in this picture, but I think we're lucky we got a photo at all!! Yea us! (The firefly is the one little yellow dot on the big black photo.)

A Birthday Post

2010-06-17T13:10:00.012-04:00

Well, since my birthday was exactly one month ago, and I've been way too crazy busy to show and tell, I'm here to tell you all about it.

David and I went to Newport for the day. I had wanted to go do something that we don't do all the time, so that was the choice. I had never done the cliff walk or seen the mansions that everyone raves about, so we went. It was a nice day, a bit chilly but not rainy. It took us about 1.5 hours to drive down there and we spent the day doing some driving to scope out the sights. Then we figured out where to park and walked along the cliffs and saw the mansions from afar. We probably should have tried to tour a couple... but that just means we need to go again!! After our lovely walk, we toured the harbor area to see what there was to see. We ended the evening at a fantastic Italian restaurant "Puerini's". Really spectacular food. We had such a great time! I wish more of the touristy things had been open like Eisenhower's house and Fort Adams... but again... another time.

Dave made an awesome breakfast for us to start the day off right!

Eisenhower's house

crazy cruise ship that dwarfed everything!

This was about all we saw of Fort Adams :( I was sad because I like touring old forts.

The official beginning of the Cliff Walk.

Another gorgeous house on the water in Newport.

Not one of the mansions, but it reminds me of houses you see in fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.

Artsy picture of one of the mansions through its fence

Mansion

Did you know Dave could be a model? He's got the look...

I'm not quite model material, but I smile nicely for the camera. This was along the cliff walk too.

Another mansion. I'd really like to tour the inside sometime.

Another artsy photo I took of Dave. Seriously, maybe I can sell these to Ralph Lauren...

Us on the cliff walk. I'm not joking, he deleted the one good photo of us because he thought it looked bad. But you can't tell on those little camera screens! I was not happy, but this one is ok.

Farm Stand Lettuce

2010-06-16T10:37:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I went to my local farm stand and came home with two HUGE bags of produce for $16. I love New England for this! The produce is usually very good and always fresh. Although it isn't "organic" it was usually grown locally and I like that. What I like to do is to wash and prep all the fruit and veggies when I get home from the store because if I don't, it sits and rots in my fridge never to be eaten. If it's already prepared, all I've got to do is open up the fridge and wha-la, it's ready to eat. So last on the list of things to wash and cut is lettuce because it means that I've got to soak the lettuce first then spin it in the salad spinner. I reached into the bag to pull out my head of lettuce and it is by far the most beautiful specimen I've ever seen. It makes the finest grocery store lettuce look wilty and gross. The leaves are so thick and green... with amazing texture. I can't wait for my sandwich today because it's going to be full of it!

Garden and Pets

2010-06-15T22:24:00.012-04:00

OK, so I just realized it has been over a month since I posted something here!! Wow... shame on me! I've been crazy busy, so that is why. My birthday was the 17th of May and then my parents came out for a visit and we went to a wedding in Cooperstown, NY and then I've been busy busy at work and with things here and there. I'll write a few posts on the various topics to catch you up, but here's the quiet time I've been having at home.

Remember my Canada Goose that I told you about? Well, they had babies! There were 3 but one of the babies and momma got hurt by something. They were both limping. And, sadly, baby didn't make it and now there are only two. They are growing so fast. They are best seen early in the morning on my lawn picking at the grass but they occasionally stop by in the evenings and mid-morning. Did you know that geese mate for life? True. This family is always together.

I've also been doing some "gardening" in little pots outside my apartment. I rent, so this is about all I can do, but it adds such a nice touch! I asked Dave to help me pick plants and it was so awesome how he really put effort into helping me with this. This is my first attempt to getting things to grow, so I'm pleased with the results. I'm also growing a Basil plant. I bought a small little one from the grocery store for $1.99 and planted it and it's more than doubled in size. I think it's time to make some pesto!!

2010-05-09T11:14:00.003-04:00

Well, you may have read about our beach adventures in my last post, but what I failed to mention was that although it is May and we are still having spring temperatures and rain, on our perfect beach adventure, Dave and I got a bit crisp that day. We had bought some of the sunscreen shown above from Costco. We thought it would be good. It has SPF 45 and this new formula blocks both UVA and UVB rays. We thought we would like the spray sunscreen, but what we found was that even in the slightest wind you get spotty coverage. To say the least, I had major spots that just didn't get sprayed and ended up with some serious sunburn. You can even see me turning a little pink. We got home and I was a bit toasted and in a fair amount of pain. Fortunately, I had the foresight to throw some Solarcaine Aloe Spray into my bag. But you have to make sure that it dries completely before putting on clothes, so at an hour way past our bedtime, Dave covered me with spray and stood there with a cool hairdryer drying the aloe spray (with lidocaine) to make sure that it was all dry before we went to bed. He wasn't as burnt as I was, so he didn't need to be "dried" but I did. I thought it was the sweetest thing the way he looked after me when i was all burnt up. He took really good care of me. Although it certainly wasn't something that I planned on happening since it had been a while since I had been that burnt.

dinner @ cape cod, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

A Day at the Beach

2010-05-07T09:53:00.006-04:00

Dave is now working on weekends again for skydiving season, so we've had to move our "weekends" to a day during the week. This week, that day was Wednesday and it was fantastic. We had almost 80 degree weather and not a cloud in the sky. We headed to Cape Cod for the day to a Beach in the town Sandwich called "Crane Neck Beach" This was pre-season so they didn't charge us to park there. I'll say this, the beach was unbelievably rocky. see here:

crane neck beach, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

But otherwise, it was great. We practically had the beach to ourselves and it was quiet and lovely. The water was a bit cold (think 41 degrees) so we didn't swim. We brought a volleyball and smashball, but couldn't play because it was way too rocky. But we laid out in the sun. ate a nice lunch on the beach blanket and then went hiking in the dunes with our flip flops on. We ended the day driving across to the "oceanside" part of the cape since we ended up on the "bayside" mostly just to check it out. It was a little too windy there for our taste so we saw it, we got back into the car and we went to go get ourselves a seafood cinco de Mayo dinner at a pub nearby. What a great day... can't wait for more adventures!

P1030261, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

P1030252, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

P1030290, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

P1030275, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

Pets

2010-05-01T07:45:00.003-04:00

Recently I have a goose (sometimes two) that hang out on my lawn sleeping and eating things in the grass. I also have a pet beaver who swims and builds things along my shore. I usually see the beav swimming away as I come home from the lab. This morning I caught him on his way in. I think he likes my little piece of cove. So do the geese. This morning I fed my goose a little piece of bread that was the soggy end piece. He coo'd at me and ate it graciously. But then I went back inside, since I was out in my robe and crocs and the poor guy just stood out on the grass, confused as to where I dissappeared. He was sad about me leaving for a good 15 minutes or so, but he finally moved on. I think he'll be around for a while.

The Graduate!

2010-05-01T07:39:00.003-04:00

Dave finished his B.S. in Economics on Wednesday. Hooray! One more year and the masters will be in the bag. Got him a little 'happy graduation' gift. I thought it was nice, he didn't love it, although he did humor me with a photo. What I should really do is learn that the boy does not like surprises, and if I want to get him a gift, I should ask him what he wants. The problem is, I LOVE surprises and it's not natural for me to say "hey, I was thinking of getting you a little something for your graduation, got any ideas?" I like having the clever ideas for gifts... oh well. I am sure that one of these times I'll get it right.

Look what I found!

2010-04-24T15:33:00.002-04:00

Thursday night I was at Target picking up a card for a friend and breezed through the food aisles looking for some bargains. I often browse ice cream isles and almost never buy any, I just window shop. Well, for many years there has been a Girl Scout cookie ice cream with Thin Mints. In fact you can even buy it in the "1/2 Fat version" of which, I am a huge fan. But what did I find but my most favorite of all cookie put into vanilla ice cream with chocolate ribbons!! I LOVE the Samoa cookies. they are just sooo good. Well, even though there was no 1/2 Fat version, I decided that I can control my portion sizes and urges to eat this ice cream in no time. So, I bought it. I have had the chance to try it, it is spectacular. I highly recommend it.

Shady

2010-04-24T07:47:00.002-04:00

So, in an underground corridor at work that connects my building to the main hospital building (shown here)

IMG_0058, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

these lovely items have appeared near one of the entrances. The first (and second and third) time I have seen this, the thoughts that creeps into my mind is "bombs" and "drugs". Don't those blue boxes look mysteriously creepy? They do to me. But there has been recent work being done in the tunnel, so it probably has something to do with that.

Flowers from Dave

2010-04-23T15:23:00.002-04:00

IMG_0062, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

This morning I got a text from Dave with this picture attached. He said 'have fun in lab, I'll see you tonight'. He knows that yellow is my favorite color and that I love flowers. This is from a place on his school campus... isn't it lovely? It made my heart sing, but so does he.

Healthy Living

2010-04-22T09:33:00.003-04:00

When most people look at me, I am sure that they do not think I'm fat. And I'm not. But, I exercise and eat right (most of the time). However, as I've progressed through grad school, my time at the gym has waned, I don't always have time to cook, and the list goes on and on. So although at surface level, I live a healthy and active lifestyle, but what they don't know is that I've got about 5 pounds I want to shed but no matter what I do, I can't seem to loose 'em, and ALL of it, sits on my lower abs... not my butt or legs or arms, so I can hide it fairly easily.

When I got to the point that I thought I could absolutely not take it anymore, I've got to do something about this before 5 pounds snowballs into 10 or 20, I realized one thing. Although I thought I was making healthy choices, I discovered that it isn't entirely true. Things I thought were healthy and OK to eat, turned out they weren't, or at least weren't optimal. So I set off to the bookstore to find a book about basic nutrition. I get to the store and what do I find but an entire shelf devoted to various fad diets. I don't want a diet. I want to learn about nutrition. But I did find one book, looked like it had potential. AND the cover had a picture of a perfectly poised woman holding a plate of food, not a salad (which is something I could live without). Called Skinny Chicks Don't Eat Salads by Christine Avanti.

I read the book cover to cover in about two days, and I learned A LOT. The first was that I realized that most women should be eating about 1500 calories per day. Before I started this, I took note of what I was eating and was consistently at 2000 calories per day. Not bad, but not great. But, I also realized that I really need to up the protein in my diet, which at a calorie cut, will help me feel full longer. (and, did you know, a person who gets 25% of their calories from protein loses 10% more belly fat than the typical person who gets about 12% of their calories from protein?)

The most important thing is that I am eating every 3-4 hours and am focusing on eating a combination of protein with carbohydrates and vegetables. This keeps your blood glucose levels from going crazy and minimizes the spike of insulin after consuming carbohydrates and hopefully preventing diabetes at a later date. As it turns out, your brain needs glucose every 4 hours or so to maintain function. When I waited 6 hours or so to eat a decent meal, I had problems with chronic headaches and I would feel irritable. No more my friends. No more. Although it may seem like I am always eating, trust me, it's within reason.

Right now, I'm 5'5", 130 lbs BMI ~21.7 with just under 17% body fat. I want to be 5'5", 125 pounds with 14% body fat. That is my goal. Not a big deal you say? Why not try to get down to 120 you say? Well, my lifestyle is changing drastically. I'm learning new habits. I'm doing it naturally and without the aid of any crazy supplements. And it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle change. It is something I will be able to maintain. Which is why I'm not trying to get down to 120, it's not a number that I would be able to maintain like 125 is.

And I would like to add just one thing. We are all responsible for our own health. Nobody is going to do it for us. So if we make some minor (or major) changes now, those are habits that we will be able to pass onto our children and grandchildren so that they will be more inclined to make healthy choices themselves. THAT is my main reason for doing this and taking it seriously.

UMass beauty

2010-04-20T13:59:00.001-04:00

IMG_0057, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

UMass is a very ugly place recently. There is lots of construction going on, which overall makes it very noisy with dirt everywhere. I don't really like dirt, but that's besides the point. One thing here that is spectacular is that at the base of all the trees on the front lawns of the school, there are red and yellow tulips that pop up annually to announce the presence of spring. I'm a complete sucker for flowers, which you might not have guessed had it not been for all my recent posts with pictures of blossoms. So when I walk on campus and I see these pretty flowers blooming underneath the trees, I forget about all the noise and construction for a few seconds and it lightens my mood. (ps- forgive the quality of the photo, it was taken with my iPhone)

New all-time favorite cleaner

2010-04-15T18:59:00.003-04:00

I've got one of those teeny tiny showers that is difficult to clean so I procrastinate like crazy to clean it. But upon moving in, I cleaned everything like crazy because that's just what I do. I could never get the glass walls of the shower rid of the soap scum. It just never happened. In my desperateness, I bought what I consider to be an expensive shower cleaner, at almost $3 per can, in hopes of getting my shower cleaned once and for all. I have to tell you, It finally happened. All thanks to this:

It is a miracle cleaner my friends. I sprayed it on. I let it sit for about 5 minutes. I wiped it off with a rag. It did exactly what it claimed. No more soap scum. AND it did the scrubbing for me. I usually use Tilex bathroom cleaner and scrub and scrub and scrub away at the shower. Not this time!!!! I should note that it also claims to kill 99.9% of bacteria as well. I did not culture test my shower to see if this was true. But based on this product fulfilling it's first and primary claim, I have no reason to doubt it's antimicrobial activities.

I love it! Try it, I guarantee you'll love it too!

Sweet Nothings

2010-04-15T10:44:00.004-04:00

So this past Saturday, Dave and I went out to meet some of his friends at a bar. We had a couple drinks, we danced a little, we had a good time. We got home about 1:45 am and crashed. Well, I crashed... in his arms while he lay there awake. Not long after he gave me a little shake. The kind that communicates "I'm awake and I want you to be awake too". So I groggily wake back up and he says, 'I was whispering sweet nothings into your ears'. I asked him what kind of sweet nothings? He laughed the laugh that said without words 'I can't tell you now that you're awake'... but he then said, 'i was telling you how pretty you are, how smart you are, how sexy you are, how much i love you...' Where did I find this wonderful man??

I love the Bloomin' Trees

2010-04-13T22:32:00.002-04:00

P1030224, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

Can you tell that this is the same building/tree I took a photo of just a couple posts ago? Isn't this Dogwood tree blooming amazing?? I love the city of Boston when things begin to bloom!

Here's another of a cafe that just re-opened patio seating beneath it's own flowering trees.

And, of course, you know I like to write about my backyard wildlife. I've got a couple of swans that like to hang out on my grass.

Down the Road

2010-04-06T12:35:00.001-04:00

hume 23, originally uploaded by mleehartman.

“If we can recognize that change and uncertainty are basic principles, we can greet the future and the transformation we are undergoing with the understanding that we do not know enough to be pessimistic.”
-Hazel Henderson

How great is this quote? As I gear up to finish my PhD and look for a job, this reminds me that we can't be depressed about the outlook of our futures or lack of job openings or any of the various degrees of uncertainty. Instead, we should be excited about the adventure that lies ahead.

Easter Sunday

2010-04-05T16:19:00.005-04:00

Easter for Dave and I out here in Worcester really was a non-event. We went to church in the morning. We laid out in the sun by the lake in the afternoon. We took it easy. We went out to visit with friends John and Marianne for about an hour. We hadn't seen them in forever and so that was nice. They were supposed to come for dinner a couple weekends ago, but they've both been so sick that they couldn't make it. They are better now so we chatted for a bit. Marianne had nice baskets with Easter chocolate in them for us. It was really sweet. Driving home, I remembered I had my camera with me so we busted it out and I took a picture of my insanely handsome boyfriend. Without expecting it, he all of a sudden turned to me with this big-ol' grin on his face. I absolutely can't believe that I captured it... I was lauging so hard.

Then he took the camera from me and took my photo- this time, posed.

On Saturday I had worked a bit in the lab and noticed that one of the new visiting students from Denmark, Soren is his name, was also there and that his sister was in town for two weeks. I quickly invited them to come on over and take the canoe out on the lake sometime over the weekend. I'm not sure he knew it was Easter so he called at around 9:30am asking if 4pm was ok. I said sure, come on over (since I knew Dave and I would be home). At this point we weren't sure exactly what to do because we were planning on barbecuing some shrimp, asparagus and potatoes for dinner and that would have been about the time that they were done with their little excursion out on the lake. We didn't want to be rude and be eating dinner in front of them. Ultimately we decided since it was Easter and we had a bit of extra food, that we would invite them to join us for dinner as well. When they arrived, they were thrilled with the invitation... although I thought it would be only two extra people, it was actually 3, but oh well.

It was Dave's idea to make an appetizer to "fill them up" in case it turned out we didn't have enough food at the meal, so I threw together some hummus topped with feta cheese and green onions to be eaten with carrots and Triscuits. For dinner we had 1.27 lbs of shrimp, one large bunch of asparagus, one round loaf of San Francisco Sourdough bread and 7 small potatoes to feed them with. We tried to buy some more beers (I only had one 6-pack of IPA that I keep on hand because that's what David likes to drink) but everywhere that sells alcohol was closed. Fortunately Soren's girlfriend Coralie didn't drink and so we had enough. At the end of it all, we had leftover maybe a spoonful of potatoes and one slice of bread. That was all. Fortunately, I did have some mint ice cream on hand, which they all loved... I am hoping that with the addition of a dessert, they had enough to eat!! Of course if we had planned on having a dinner party, we would have had more food. As Dave pointed out, we had about the bare minimum of shrimp and that if we were to do it again, for 5 people, we would need about 2 pounds total, not 1.3 pounds. But it is how things go sometimes. I was glad that they stayed for dinner... it was very nice. We had about 3 hours of eating and talking out on the patio on a gorgeous spring evening.

Here's the master griller, David.

Here are our visitors, on the left is Soren. In the middle, his sister Mette and on the right, his girlfriend Coralie.

Blue Herring?

2010-04-03T12:16:00.004-04:00

I've been told that there are Blue Herrings often sighted on the lake. I was wandering on the dock while brushing my teeth this morning and thought I'd sighted one. Very still. Not moving. Like I'd seen in Vancouver about four years ago. I rushed inside to grab my camera. Of course he was still there when I got back. Why? Well, when I brought the photo's back inside to crop etc. I am realizing that this Herring is exactly that. Not real. Upon zooming, you can even see a reflection of the sun on the plastic. Boo. So sad.

But this cardinal is very real. I was lucky to get a shot of him before he spotted me and left!

Around the World

2010-04-03T10:51:00.003-04:00

DON'T ASK YOURSELF WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS. ASK YOURSELF WHAT MAKES YOU COME ALIVE, AND GO DO THAT, BECAUSE WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS IS PEOPLE WHO HAVE COME ALIVE. {JOHN ELDREDGE}

As usual, to avoid doing things that need doing on a GORGEOUS Saturday morning, here I sit, on my futon with a lake-side view with the door wide open with the scent of spring floating in, browsing Facebook. My sweet David left early for a base jump and is now 'getting current' so he can be a safe skydiving instructor when the season begins at the end of the month. So here I sit, reading about other people's adventures while I *don't* do my taxes. But I'm on my way to my desk... I promise.

But as Facebook does, it often "suggests" people that you may know to add as friends on Facebook. One popped up and as it turns out, I didn't know her that well, but I was friends with her husband throughout college. I clicked on the link because I'm often curious about what people are up to and what they are doing with their lives. Well, on her FB page, I saw a link to their blog (often way more telling than a FB page), so I clicked on it and discovered a well-documented, amazing adventure that they went on in 2008. A trip around the world. Just shy of 7 months of traveling (you can click on the title of this blog for their travel itinerary). They booked 'round the world tickets and were given twenty flights to jump around the world at their leisure. The pictures are incredible. The stories are sometimes unbelievable. It's fantastic.

It inspires me to do something like that. I'm not sure I ever will. If I'm lucky, maybe shortened versions of something similar. But it's awesome. I would do it in an instant. My heart absolutely longs for adventure. Still. I really think that all I needed was the one move to New England to get that ball rolling... otherwise I'm certain that I would have been too scared to leave my safe haven of San Diego.

At www.around-the-world.com they claim that you can fly around the world for just a little more than you could a round trip ticket to only one of your destinations... about $1500 each. I SOOOO want to do this. You'd still have to pay for food and lodging etc. but how cool would that be? Maybe some day...

Breakfast in bed

2010-04-02T13:46:00.001-04:00

The better weather means that jumper boy is getting geared up to jump off more stuff and skydiving season is coming soon too. Base jumping tends to happen early early or later at night. Last Sunday he was up at 4:30 to go base jumping and had some lights on and was stuffing (a little loudly- he admitted later) his pilot chute... i had a bit of a hard time falling back asleep after that but eventually did although it was only just before he got back and was all revved up on adrenaline. Fortunately I fell back asleep again only to find out that as I slept, he got breakfast ready and surprised me with a nice tray of fresh fruit and french toast that we had prepared the night before. How sweet was that?? Gotta love it! I guess that makes up for the 4:30 wake up!!

Spring is Here

2010-04-02T13:33:00.007-04:00

Turns out spring is here in full force. You may have heard about the insane New England rain we've been getting. It's been all over the news. Last weekend, it stopped raining for a bit so Dave and I went walking around the city. We took a few pictures, but I'll take some more once things start to bloom. But it's nice to get out without freezing to death. It was cold on Sunday for our little stroll, but we grapped a hot tea and kept on going. We walked along the Charles River starting in Cambridge... then walked across a bridge and went up and down Newbury Street on the Boston Side. By the end, the wind had really picked up and I was an ice cube, but otherwise, it was a nice afternoon.

Sad for California Teachers

2010-03-25T10:34:00.004-04:00

As many of you know, the economy is still pretty terrible. One thing that's been in bad shape for some time now is keeping teachers in jobs in CA. I know this is true because I've had many friends who became teachers and since the day they got their teaching credentials, have had a truly tumultuous experience. But now it's all over the news and it just confirms it. Depending on what you read, you'll see numbers anywhere from 20-26,000 teachers received "pink slips" telling them there is a good chance they won't have a job next year. They also say that in 2003, which up to date, was the worst year for pink slips, all but 3,000 out of 20,000 were without jobs by fall. But predictions for teachers keeping jobs for next year, fall 2010, suggest that things might not be that good this year because the economy is much worse than it was in 2003.

Most of my girl friends who wanted to be teachers have gotten pink slips every year for the past 6 years (since they started teaching). Sometimes they got their job back after budgets were figured out, but that didn't mean that it was waiting for them after the pink slip they got the next year. Some of them have left teaching all together because the instability is too much to handle. One is hoping that an $8/hour job at TJ Maxx will hold her family over until she can get a teaching job again. She said "I was rich when I was a teacher and I didn't even know it". It has crushed them. It makes me so very sad. For the teachers, for the schools and for the kids.

And for those of you who don't know this- teaching is a rough profession. I never thought that when I was a student in public schools in CA. I always thought it was pretty cushy job. Two weeks off at Christmas, two weeks at Easter... two and a half months of summer... what a life huh? But what you don't know is that they get there usually a couple hours before students do. They leave much later. They bring work home every single night. They are constantly planning, every night for every subject (elementary) or every class (middle/upper) and are grading papers all the time... even over all those lovely little breaks they get. They work just as hard, if not harder, than many other professions despite the lovely summer months off. And for all that work, the pay is crap. But most of them love it, so it doesn't matter to them, although I'm sure they wouldn't turn down a pay raise.

I was reading an article that said that enrollment in teaching programs has very significantly decreased. The state is "worried" because according to one article it needs 20,000 new teachers each year to make up for retirements and other losses in teachers but the reduction in enrollment is down by 10,000 in the past two years. Do you blame them? Imagine. You're young, you're starting your life, deciding to get married and start a family... but every year, you don't know if you'll still have a job at the end of the semester. Are you kidding?!?! It's ridiculous. No wonder enrollment in teaching programs is down. With that kind of career outlook, if I was in school and wanted a rewarding career with a stable future, I'd go into nursing.

And frankly, California SHOULD be concerned about those numbers. What has President Obama been going to schools talking to kids about? "DO YOURSELF AND YOUR COUNTRY A FAVOR. GET AN EDUCATION. YOU ARE THE COUNTRY'S FUTURE. YOU HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO DO GREAT THINGS AND ADVANCE THIS NATION IN WAYS NO OTHER GENERATION EVER HAS." You know what, I believe that. I really do. But if you can't get a decent elementary and high school education, how are you supposed to get to college let alone be successful? Just curious. How are you supposed to have a substantial enough base to really succeed in higher ed? And for kids who don't get the support they need at home, how are you going to get the encouragement and support and motivation to do great things with your life if your classes are jam packed with too-many students and an over-worked teacher who doesn't have the time to care the way he/she probably wants too? How?

I like this poster here.

I'm just glad that I am not a CA public school teacher. I am also glad that I don't have children in CA public schools who would no doubt feel the impact of all of this nonsense.

California, get it together.

Beaver Hunt

2010-03-20T16:55:00.008-04:00

While having lunch out on the lawn today, Dave spotted a beaver swimming along. We spent a bit of time chasing him around... in and around the bushes… underneath the docks… it was fun. Here's some pictures of us beaver 'hunting'.

I didn’t notice the classic paddle-type beaver tail. It looked more like a possum tail, but based on this creature’s interest with the not-quite-blooming bushes and stick collection, we decided it was a beaver. He was a lot smaller than I had expected, but I think that makes him pretty cool.

You can see him pretty well in some of the pictures. I've seen ducks, swans and a blue herring, but never a beaver. We both thought it was pretty cool.

Out on the Lake

2010-03-20T16:40:00.006-04:00

Dave and I spent a little over an hour today out in the canoe on the lake in my backyard. We did some exploring in a part of the lake we had never been to that started off through a tunnel just to the right of our dock. It really is a beautiful day out today. I am pretty sure that the high is about 70 and starting tomorrow we're going to be back in the low 50's again. Boo. But at least we were able to enjoy a Saturday outside before it gets cold again.

There also seems to be a run-away dock in this neck of the woods. But don't worry. Dave tamed it and then shoved it off back into the great unknown...

Camera Found! Here's what you missed:

2010-03-04T19:52:00.011-05:00

1. More snow. I think it makes the houses across the lake look like gingerbread houses.
But I think it simply looks beautiful in the trees... even though it's cold.

2. The not-so-wonderful & completely mis-happed birthday dinner for jumper boy... But people celebrating appropriately :) BUT- I did make the "planned" dinner the next day to make up for the late-movie make-shift birthday dinner

3. But at least we had a candle. That DID go right. :)

No More Camera

2010-02-24T10:09:00.003-05:00

Well, as I mentioned before, Valentine's weekend was Jumper boy's birthday. I had a camera. I took a picture of him holding is dessert with a candle for all to see. That picture is on my camera. The camera is MIA. I'm very sad. I wanted to take a picture of the crazy ice outside my house. No can do. I thought I had left it at his house last weekend. I did not. I know I had put it in my bag. But somewhere between the bag and coming into my apartment, the camera is gone. How sad is that!!!??? You all know I am a picture fiend! The jumper boy and I want a nice new SLR digital camera, so we've started a savings fund for that, but it's only got $50 in it right now and the camera is closer to $800 at Costco. I'll say though, it is nice having a small little camera when you want to go out with friends and it fits in your purse. And I love my little camera. It's a Panasonic TZ4 with a Leica 28mm wide angle lens with 10x optical zoom. This lens is the same one that the multi-million dollar microscope that I use at school has. That's one of the reason's why I chose this camera over others. It's big for a "small" digital camera, but the quality is unbelievable and it fits in my purse, so it doesn't bother me! So sad it's gone!

Anyways, if you see it anywhere, let me know!

A Birthday Weekend

2010-02-18T17:26:00.004-05:00

Jumper boy's birthday is on Valentine's Day. Yippee. Which of course means that I get presents on his birthday :) I like that deal! In all fairness, I did petition to him that I felt like we should do V-day the day before so that on his birthday we could just do a birthday celebration and not worry about doilies and chocolate. Although I may SAY that I want to ignore V-day completely and ONLY celebrate his birthday, let's be honest, I'd have been a little sad if he didn't do ANYTHING for me all nice-and-sweet. But we did a little V-day gift exchange the night before... I got him a much-needed gym bag (not because I'm forcing him to hit the gym, but because he didn't have one). I also put little goodies in it with cute little notes that said things like "nothing says 'love' like 'fix that smell' (because i put the note on little things you put in your shoes to keep them from smelling up the place).

He gave me an ever-so-sweet-because-we-both-wanted-it-Cuisinart-Food Processor. :) I do love it... it chopped a whole onion in seconds. It shredded a block of cheese in an instant. It whipped up potatoes so fast they turned starchy! Really, the thing is brilliant. What got him into trouble was when he foolishly said, "nothing says 'love' like 'cook me some birthday dinner'. Ya... well... whatcha gonna do. He was kidding.

Now, for HIS birthday, we hung out, we went to a movie that was PACKED!!, it got out late and we started cooking dinner late. The grocery store didn't have my ingredients, Then they didn't have the meat... boo. It sorta all fell apart. Good news is, the next day, I cooked the meat I planned and the day after that, I cooked the soup. It all turned out, just not when I wanted it to. But we had a great weekend...

Re-Finishing the Table

2010-02-17T15:24:00.009-05:00

When I moved into my new little studio apartment, I desperately needed a table. John & Marianne, who so often take care of me out of the goodness of their hearts, took me down to the unfinished furniture store in Westborough and I picked out a table and chairs so that I would have a place to eat and cook. Well, to prevent them from getting damaged, Dave and I finished the set January 16-19... they look great! We did two coats of stain and about 4 coats polyurethane on the table top and four on the chairs. Here's the pics:

Contamination

2010-01-21T09:28:00.008-05:00

This past weekend Mr. Handsome and I worked on finishing my kitchen table. It was a big task, but we got it done. More on the table in another post. Anywhoo, we needed rags and I found some... they were red. I am obsessively careful about my white towels being washed only with other whites. Obsessive. However, there seems to have been some contamination. Now my white towels are pink. After a long soak with bleach afterwards, they are a bit less pink, but pink nonetheless. Bummer.

uh-oh. Pink!!

The culprit

pre-bleached towel

post-bleached towel

Holiday Madness

2010-01-04T11:16:00.008-05:00

Can you believe this schedule?
Dec. 22- arrive in SD. Dinner with the fam plus the awesome Gillingham's after some shopping
Dec. 23- more shopping & Tamale Party
Dec. 24- went walking in the AM with long-time friend Dilenna and then got a text from jumper boy @ 11am asking me why I'm not in LA yet because the champagne is already flowing... drive up there and spend Christmas Eve with his family
Dec. 25- Christmas morning with the boy's family, Dug out huge plumeria trees in the front yard for his sister to bring back to San Diego for their new home. Drive down to SD spend Christmas evening with my family
Dec. 26- help Jumper boy's sister & brother-in-law plant huge plumeria trees in the new backyard, load a U-haul trailer with stuff to bring to the dump. We decide to hang with them the rest of the night eating Thai food and drinking champagne.
Dec. 27- Jumper boy's sister makes an awesome egg chorizo breakfast on Sunday's... we stay there and enjoy the company longer... it was nice spending time with them. We try to go see Sherlock Holmes but it was sold out, so we hit the Banana Republic sale instead. Then the boy and I headed out to see his Aunt who lives near Patrick Henry High for an hour or so before we got a surprise visit from my half brothers Tony & Kenny from up in Northern California which resulted with a dinner and a bonfire with them
Dec. 28- back up to LA to spend some more time with the boy's family. We arrived in the late afternoon so we didn't do much, but his mom made enchilada's and we watched a movie.
Dec. 29th- we worked in the front yard some more. It was a beautiful day. Nice and sunny. Then we went to a fish restaurant for lunch. Too much traffic to head up to Laura's as planned, so we stayed home, watched a movie and got a little bit of food poisoning from In-and-Out. :(
Dec. 30- Drove up to Simi Valley from La Mirada. TONS of traffic... took over twice as long as it should have to get there. Spent the afternoon in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi. It was pretty cool. We got to tour his Air Force One and see a piece of the Berlin Wall that he had a hand in taking down. Laura and her husband made us dinner that night and we were entertained by their 6-month old daughter Kiersten and puppy Greta. Josh then made us the best kettle corn ever for dessert. nice.

December 31- drove to Fresno with the boy to meet his friend Gary. After a couple hours hanging out, we loaded up Gary's car and headed to Big Sur (a 3 hour drive) so the boys could base jump off some bridge they were totally obsessed with :) It was a pretty cool bridge though.

Jan.1- They jumped at midnight, climbed back up, we popped some champagne and we headed back another 3 hours to Fresno to sleep for 2 hours before waking up to drive back to LA and SD so that I could make it to the Riel family party in time. Jumper boy was now at home with his family and me at home with mine. I went to bed at 7:30 pm that night
Jan. 2- Got a haircut from my aunt Francie and then met some long-time friends that I hadn't seen since 6th grade. Did some gift returns/exchanges from Christmas. followed by dinner @ the Panton's house.
Jan. 3- Back for more hair work with Aunt Francie bright and early! then to a bridal shower for a long-time family friend Audrey. Went home, packed my bags, realized I had forgotten my gloves in Dilenna's stroller on the 24th so headed back there and chatted with her and her husband for a bit.
Jan.4- going home. jumper boy's cousin is picking me up from Logan airport at 8pm
Jan.5- picking up jumper boy from the airport t 5am after his red-eye flight

The annual Tamale Party

2010-01-04T11:08:00.004-05:00

This year's Tamale party at the Martinez house was quieter than usual. Last year was absolutely wild and ended with Cheri on a chair leading a houseful of people to take shots of tequila. This year, there were less shots of Tequila (although my suffering from jet-lag led me to leave the party early around 10:30pm and it's quite possible that it picked up quickly after I left). Cheri and Tom sported their new gifts from the grandkids complete with painted handprints! Myself and others sported the "?Got Tamales?" T-shirt made for us by Cheri a couple years back. Got to visit with Danielle, one of my closest friends from childhood and got to see her cute little boy Nico. Every year, on the 23rd, this is what we do!

Dinner @ the Panton's

2010-01-04T10:56:00.008-05:00

I've decided that since I've still got an hour to kill before boarding the plane, that I'd go ahead and write another post! On Saturday evening we were invited over to the Holly and Rex's for dinner. It was so fabulous... it was a group of us who have been in each other's lives as long as I can remember. Holly & Rex's daughter Lauren was there with her new husband Marty. Uncle Bob & Aunt Listy came along with Kristy and Seamus. My mom and dad, brother Curtis and his girlfriend Lauren came too. It was just a lot of fun. Holly had these popper things that had trinkets and a fortune and a paper crown that we all wore after dinner in celebration of good times. We drank, we ate, we talked, we watched Lauren & Marty's wedding viedo... it was fun. These are some of the best people that I know. It was a nice "send-off".

I heart California

2010-01-04T10:40:00.003-05:00

I am in the airport killing time with the Free WiFi (a holiday gift from Google apparently) waiting to go back to reality. I have had a good trip. I'll post some more pictures later and tell the stories as time goes so that it's not just one giant post. Today dad took me to the airport and we left around 6:20am or so... the sunrise was sooo pretty. Really gorgeous, deep oranges, reds and pinks lit up the sky. Of course we get sunsets in New England, but this was particularly beautiful with the silhouettes of Palm trees in the view of the sky. I'm going to miss it even though most days I was asleep when this was going on.

One other thing that I will miss is Jamba Juice. I really really love a good smoothie. There is a Jamba Juice on BU's campus, but that is of little help to me. Otherwise, there are no smoothie joints to be found in my region. Sad. Fortunately San Diego airport has one in the terminal and I can sit here and enjoy one last Caribbean Passion fruit smoothie with yogurt instead of sherbet.

My Frozen Backyard Lake

2009-12-21T11:41:00.004-05:00

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!!!

2009-12-18T09:43:00.012-05:00

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!

2009-12-10T10:33:00.006-05:00

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

2009-12-07T22:01:00.004-05:00

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

2009-12-07T21:26:00.005-05:00

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

2009-11-06T16:39:00.002-05:00

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

2009-11-06T16:17:00.017-05:00

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

2009-11-06T16:12:00.005-05:00

The view from my apartment...

A Canoeing Adventure

2009-10-25T22:39:00.007-04:00

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

2009-10-25T22:32:00.006-04:00

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

Sunday's Accomplishments

2009-10-18T18:59:00.005-04:00

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

2009-10-18T15:41:00.003-04:00

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!

New Apartment

2009-10-16T13:30:00.009-04:00

Hi All- the new apartment is fully unpacked and painted and ready to be lived in. I love it. I picked a yellow for the living area (I thought it was going to be a lighter color, but oh well), a light green for the kitchen and a light pink for the bathroom. Yes. Pink. For those of you who don't know me, although I'm a bit of a wild child and adventurous and come from a family of boys, I am very feminine and girlie. I figured this will be the only time in my life I can have a pink room... once you're married you can't be having a pink bathroom... Enjoy!

When I need a Pick-Me-Up

2009-10-09T09:22:00.002-04:00

Recently, when I need a pick-me-up because I'm feeling sad or lonely or stressed, I pull up this picture of my nephew Corbin who only just turned 4 months old... isn't he the cutest!?! But then of course I feel the need to go onto Facebook and go through all the pictures of this little guy... just warms my heart right up.

I haven't even met him. He's in CA and I"m in MA. He was born in May and I'll see him for the first time around Christmas. Honest truth though, I didn't even know this kind of love existed. I look at my brother's kid and am so filled with love I can't even believe it. Let me make myself clear, I don't feel this way about all babies... but this one belongs to my brother... he's special... and I love him... and he makes me smile.

Dog Bite Update

2009-10-06T23:57:00.003-04:00

The pain is gone (unless you touch it). The bruise is fading. I believe that I am ready to meet jumper boy's dog again... under the assumption of course that jumper boy will act as a human shield if the dog decides that I'm yummy a second time. Of course.

A Dusk Kayak Adventure

2009-10-06T23:43:00.006-04:00

Today I got home at a reasonable hour. I decided that the lake looked too inviting for me to not go out on a kayak. My upstairs house-mate Court said that I was more than welcome to take his kayak out because the canoe is heavy for just one person. I took him up on it and as the sun was going down, I embarked. It was so peaceful out there on the water. I got wet, but I didn't care. It was perfect! I was out for about 30 minutes before I decided it was much too dark for me to be out there. So I paddled on back. It got confusing because the reflections of light on the water made it difficult to tell what was what. But I made it! I think this will be a regular outing for me. It's good for the soul.
Here's more pictures of my lake (and swans) that I took when it was still light out:

And of course, the little red canoe:

Move Update

2009-10-06T23:24:00.002-04:00

So here's the new news on the move. Turns out my former landlord is completely unaware of MA law about tenancy. She told me although she felt sorry about my situation of the move, I needed to be out by Saturday because someone else was moving in. Seriously?!? Ok, so called up the people who had showed me the "alternate" apartment that they were renting. I said I'd take it, I called up jumper boy, and the move was on for Friday (it was anticipated to pour down rain all weekend, so I took Friday off work to move).

I got a futon, coffee table and lamp from a friend who is moving to Germany in December. I had some things. I am inheriting a dresser from another guy moving to Germany this month. And, I am so blessed, some friends of mine (more like family really) took me to a place where they sell unfinished furniture and bought me a cabinet and table for my kitchen (with chairs). I was not expecting that at all!! So nice!!

It took some getting used to, but I love my new place. It's right on Lake Quinsigamond on the Shrewsbury side (bonus- the Shrewsbury address lowers my car insurance!!) But literally, ten steps outside my door is a dock, with a kayak and a canoe. It's a basement "apartment" (without a stove/oven) in a duplex condo. It's basically a studio apartment with a mini-kitchen and it's own bathroom. I have access to the kitchen upstairs and the guys living there seem friendly. There is a door separating the kitchen & bathroom from the living area/bedroom

I scrubbed the apartment like crazy the night before (only hours after the previous tenant moved out). The apartment is getting painted soon. I picked out some colors already (landlords let me pick the paint!). I was told it's getting painted on Saturday, but I'm not sure it will be finished by then. However, there is a funky smell in the bathroom. We are going to figure it out though... not sure if it's mold or just icky...

Today I rode my bike 3.54 miles (one-way) to work and back. No major hills like my previous 5.2 mile commute that killed! I think this will be a good arrangement. A lovely ride...

I'll get up some pictures of the inside once it's not so crazy in here!.

Seriously?

2009-09-30T20:07:00.003-04:00

Moving day was set for this Saturday. My stuff is in boxes. I was supposed to get the key and sign the official lease last night. But instead, I got a call about 2 hours before I was supposed to meet the landlord saying his wife (who takes care of this part of things) was at a meeting late and couldn't make it, she'll call tomorrow (Wednesday) and set something up with you. I said sure, no problem, I'll be around. Get a call from her this morning at about 10:30 saying that they are unable to rent me the room that I've been waiting for for the past MONTH because of some "new" law in Worcester about a landlord not renting a property to more than 3 unrelated individuals. The house has 4 rooms. 3 upstairs in the main house and the basement "apartment" (without a proper kitchen) that I was going to rent. Everything was set. Until 2 DAYS BEFORE I MOVE!!! Son of a gun...

I'm a pretty logical person. In about 10 minutes, I gave them two other very reasonable options that they could do... ie: raise the rent and then rent only 2/3 of the three bedrooms and call the 3rd an "office". Or, rent me the downstairs apartment and someone else the whole upstairs. Sounds simple right?

Well, after that, she had the audacity to suggest another apartment to me that they had on another property. It was nice, but a studio and not as close as I wanted it to be (at least for the hassle of moving etc. It didn't feel right, so I turned them down. She ended with saying that they are going to try to work something out... but it will take some time. No matter what, they are screwing me... intentional or not, doesn't matter. It feels the same to me.

Needless to say, I ended up in tears... following with one heck of a headache... followed by delirium and now just fatigue. I'm very upset, as I'm sure you can imagine. I only hope that this will not be a problem for me to stay in my current location for a bit longer. Aaarggg....

The Progression of a Bruise/Bite

2009-09-29T22:14:00.002-04:00

Is it weird that I am posting updated pictures of this nasty dog bite I got? The bite part isn't even that bad... but the bruise is gross. Honestly, I've never had a bruise so bad before... I'm a bit fascinated by it. My roommate was disgusted that I was wearing shorts around the house this evening packing for my move on Friday... I think I forgot to tell her what happened and she was just worried about it. Sweet...