Labor Day Weekend

SooAnn and I spent Labor Day weekend visiting my friends Aaron and Joy in Sterling, IL. They were some of my best friends in Connecticut, and after a year of living so far away they missed me so much that they decided to move closer :) Or maybe they just missed the Midwest and wanted to be closer to family... Whatever the reason, it's great to have them closer and I look forward to having them visit Lafayette sometime and introduce them to some of you.

One of the highlights of the visit was a trip to the Reagan boyhood home in Dixon, IL (from 1920-1923). Actually he lived in 5 different homes in Dixon, but this is the one that has been preserved. It is a pretty normal home... nothing fancy. In fact, he shared a small room with his brother.

I think that I especially enjoyed visiting the home because President Reagan is the first president I remember and he was president during my growing up years. I find it interesting that he was the 4th president during my lifetime, and I was only a few weeks shy of 7 when he took office. One of my earliest national event memories was of the assassination attempt on March 30, 1981.

A question for my readers... What is your earliest nation event memory? I'm almost afraid to ask because it might make me feel old.

Great Horned Owl

You never know what you might see when you work outdoors in nature, and yesterday was a great example of why I have my camera along almost all the time! My coworker Scott and I were driving back the lane to the hog lagoon we are monitoring when a big bird flew out of the corn along the lane. I had no idea what it was... it didn't fly like any of the more common large birds. When we got back to the lagoon, it was standing guard over one of our instruments. It was a good distance away, and I didn't realize what it was until I zoomed in and took some photos. The owl apparently roosts on our 60 foot tower to hunt and has been around for a while, since a few weeks ago Scott had found an owl pellet (which he thought was a very large animal dropping until today) near the top of the tower. If you don't know what an owl pellet is check out this link: http://www.kidwings.com/owlpellets/index.htm

Tippecanoe County Fair

SooAnn and I went to the fair Saturday evening, but things were not really in full swing yet. Anybody interested in joining me there some evening this week to check it out?

July

It's been nearly 2 months since my last post, so I decided it was time for a quick update. We've had some big deadlines at work and equipment that has been uncooperative at times, so my weeks have been very busy. I've kept busy on the weekends spending time with SooAnn, career class friends, and my family.

Speaking of my family, I'm excited that we'll be heading to Ohio on Thursday to visit my parents for an extended weekend. I'm hoping to pick some wild black raspberries next to some of my dad's fields, but they've had an extremely dry summer so the raspberry supply has been low. Black raspberries are one of my favorites, especially fresh ones over vanilla ice cream.

This upcoming weekend is also the 1-year anniversary of my first visit to Lafayette. I stayed with my sister in Indianapolis and she rode up with me to check out the area and find a place to live. God has been so faithful over this past year! Thanks to all of you for your friendship!

Here's a picture of a budding meteorologist (my nephew) looking even more excited about anemometers than I am (it that's possible).

It's official....

we're dating!!

Happy Hollow Tree Photos

By popular demand (from Dana), here are a couple of photos from the Happy Hollow hike of March 31. Kind of reminds me of Treebeard from Lord of the Rings.

Stowaway and a couple of stickerings that might have been

These photos were taken on a walk in Armstrong Park (and surrounding neighborhood) last Sunday. The first photo shows a stowaway we came across (does anybody recognize him?) and the others show simulated stickerings that, although they didn't actually happen, would have been classic.

Final Four Party

Date: Saturday, March 31
Place: My place.
Time: Anytime after 5:30 PM. Games start at 6:07 PM (Ohio State vs. Georgetown is first).
Event: Cheer Ohio State on to victory!
What to Wear: Ohio State clothing. If you don't own any, wearing red would be fine. I also have a couple of extra OSU sweatshirts that will be available to be worn.
What to Bring: Snack or drink of some kind. Pizza will be ordered.

This will be a "no-sticker zone" as we will be saying a prayer before eating and having a short devotional on all occurrences of the word basketball in the Bible.

Let me know if you'll be there! Hopefully some of your are still blogging, since the number of comments has dropped significantly on most blogs I read lately.

OKTXKS

I am blogging this evening from my hotel room in Amarillo, Texas, while watching the Ohio State against Tennessee NCAA game. It is now halftime with the Buckeyes behind 49-32.

I've spent this week here in the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma and extreme southern Kansas. We had a successful week preparing 3 of our measurement sites: 1 at a dairy farm and 2 at hog farms. We were blessed with dry weather until just after we finished up the 3rd site around noon today. Then it really poured later this afternoon.

Here are a few photos I've taken this week. The game is getting closer now! It was tied a little while ago. Be sure to check out the Spring Peeper blog... it's been updated. Update at 12:30 AM EDT (11:30 PM CDT)!!! WOW!!! BUCKEYES WIN!!!!!!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!

Turkey Run State Park

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day and also Eric's birthday, so to celebrate a group of 8 of us went for a hike at Turkey Run State Park. This also helped Eric get started on his New Year's resolution to "hike all the trails at Turkey Run." A good time was had by all, and, although it was a bit chilly while eating the picnic lunch, it was a beautiful day for a hike. Those of you who might have been scared off by the cold missed a great time! I'm sure there will be more opportunities to hike as a group this spring and summer... but by then it will probably be hot and humid with lots of bugs. A big thanks to Abby and anyone else who was involved in putting this event together and provided food! My next post will probably be from the panhandle of Oklahoma, where I am headed bright and early tomorrow morning.

Spring Peepers

Without looking it up, do you know what a Spring Peeper is? A funny story and multimedia presentation related to this question will be posted at the conclusion of this informal survey.

UPDATE: Given the overwhelming response to the survey, I'm assuming that most of you already know what Spring Peepers are and are insulted that I would even imply that you don't by asking this question. For those of you that don't already know, here's a link to a Wikipedia entry about Spring Peepers. They are small frogs that make a lot of high pitched noise in the spring. I heard them a lot when I lived back east (PA, MD, and CT) but haven't yet heard them in Indiana. I was hiking with my "sisters" a couple of weekends ago and was commenting that I missed hearing the peepers and wondered if we would hear any on the hike. They had never heard of them and questioned whether they were related to the snipe. So it's kind of an inside joke. By the way, there really is such a thing as the snipe as well.... Although I have never seen one in person, even though I have taken friends on snipe hunts before (some of them very successful, if you know what I mean).

What a difference a month makes....

It's hard to believe, but one month ago today the blizzard of 2007 was in full swing. All of the parking spaces in my apartment complex are available for the first time since then as the last piles of snow have nearly succumbed to the record-breaking warmth of today. I love all the seasons, but right now I love spring the best! I enjoy hearing the birds singing in the morning when I wake up and watching things slowly come back to life.

Sunday morning I walked outside around 6:45 and saw a beautiful alignment of the moon, Jupiter, and Antares (a bright star visible in the evening during the summer). I was feeling a little stressed at the moment because my cell-phone (and hence alarm) failed to automatically make the time change, but when I saw the beauty of God's creation my stress level dropped 100%. I didn't even know the alignment was happening before I went out, which made it all the more exciting to me. I enjoy watching the constellations change with the seasons and it's almost like greeting old friends when I see constellations I haven't seen for a few months.

If it wasn't for good old Daylight Savings Time I would have slept right through this celestial alignment. So, you see, DST is a good thing. I have not found many who share this opinion in this state. What do you all think about DST?

Photo on TV

This morning, I submitted a photo I took of yesterday's freezing fog to WLFI-TV. I just heard back that they will probably be showing it on WLFI news (probably during the weather, but I'm not sure). He didn't specify when, but I will be watching this evening and wanted to let the blog-world know! I will post the photo later....

UPDATE: The photo aired at around 5:15. Thanks to Eric for taping it for me! Here's the photo, plus a couple of photos of my TV with the photo.

Blizzard of 2007 (Part 2)

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Top Snowstorm Memories

Wow! I went for a walk around my apartment complex a little while ago to check out the conditions and experience the storm once again before the snow stopped. I was amazed at how much deeper the snow and snowdrifts were than they were around 2 PM when I took the photos on a previous post. I will be out in the morning to get some more photos. While walking, I contemplated where this storm ranks with other snow storms I have witnessed. Here's the list I came up with:

1) Great Blizzard of 1978 (26 January 1978). This storm is in a class by itself. Unfortunately, I was just shy of 4 at the time and so have very limited memory of it. However, one of my earliest memories was sledding down a huge drift (10-15 feet deep) created by this storm in the barnyard. I sometimes find myself wishing for another storm like this one, but the conditions that came together to produce this storm are extremely rare.

2) President's Day Storm II (15 to 18 February 2003). About 22" at my apartment in Greenbelt, MD (Washington DC suburb).

3) Blizzard of 1996 (6 to 8 January 1996). I awoke on the morning of Sunday, January 7 to find that the impact expected from this storm in NW Ohio had been drastically underestimated. The first day of classes for the quarter at Cedarville, scheduled for the next day, was cancelled because it was virtually impossible to return to campus. This was the second snowstorm of about a foot during a very, very memorable Christmas break. Blizzard warnings were issued for both storms.

4) Blizzard of 2007 (TODAY!)

5) Snowstorm of 24 February 1990. Only about 4" fell in this storm, but strong winds made it memorable. I was in Lima for high school music competition on this day, and we were not allowed to return home and ended up spending the night in a hotel there.

Blizzard of 2007

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Career Class Cleans Community Center

A large group from the career ABF showed up at 8 this morning to help sweep the Community Center. A good (and dusty) time was had by all and it was great to be able to serve in this way. We then went for a delicious brunch at the Cracker Barrel.

Ben-Hur (Part 1)

A couple of Sundays ago I had some time in the church library after my membership interview. In my search for a good book to read, I came across "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" by Lew Wallace. When I saw the title, I chose it right away for several reasons:
1) Lew Wallace was a Hoosier, born in Brookville (near Cincinnati, OH) and spending much of his life in Indianapolis and Crawfordsville. The book was the best-selling novel of the 19th century.
2) The book is a favorite of the pastor of the church I attended in Connecticut. He's even written a sequel.
3) I saw the movie (1959 starring Charlton Heston) a couple of years ago and really liked it.

I've passed the 100 page mark (out of 500) and the book has not disappointed. It is not a quick reading book, as the author writes in a very descriptive style that requires a lot of thought. I can understand why my previous pastor likes it so much. Here is a segment taken from when the wise men arrive to see Jesus:

The apartment was lighted by a lantern enough to enable the strangers to find the mother, and the child awake in her lap.

"Is the child thine?" asked Balthasar of Mary.

And she who had kept all the things in the least affecting the little one, and pondered them in her heart, held it up in the light, saying, "He is my son!"

And they fell down and worshipped him.

They saw the child was as other children: about its head was neither nimbus nor material crown; its lips opened not in speech; if it heard their expressions of joy, their invocations, their prayers, it made no sign whatever, but, baby-like, looked longer at the flame in the lantern than at them.

In a little while they arose, and, returning to the camels, brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and laid them before the child, abating nothing of their worshipful speeches; of which no part is given, for the thoughtful know that the pure worship of the pure heart was then what it is now, and has always been, an inspired song.

And this was the Saviour they had come so far to find!

Yet they worshipped without a doubt.

Purdue Basketball Party

Date: Saturday, Feb. 10
Time: Noon
Location: Matt and Eric's place
Event: Purdue Basketball Game on TV (check the schedule to see who the opponent is.... I'll give you one guess)

Let me know if you can make it.

Random Photos

Here are a couple of photos.... One sent to me by a friend. The other posted in response to GKnees comment about wishing she could have seem Seema in the snow.

Snow at Last!!!

I was excited to see a few flakes starting to fall outside my office window around 9:30 this morning. These were just the first flakes of what would end up being about half-a-foot of snow over the course of the day. I must confess that, as a meteorologist and snow lover at heart, I probably spent about as much time today looking out the window at the snow and checking out the latest radar image as I did actually working. And then there was the walk in the snow with two of my co-workers later this afternoon. We were pretty well frozen by the time we got back to the office.

My love for the snow was slightly reduced as I navigated the streets on the drive home, but besides fishtailing a few times and sliding around a few turns, it wasn't all that bad. My boss had a 6:15 PM flight out of Indy; I absolutely did not envy him as he left the office at 3:00 to head out into the snow to the airport... I'm sure he will have a story to tell about that drive when he returns.

Ohio State defeats Michigan

I wasn't planning on blogging about Ohio State basketball yet again tonight since I didn't have the privilege of seeing them in person this evening. However, as I was standing there contemplating on what to blog about Eric said something to the effect of, "Why not blog about Ohio State beating Michigan? That way Wendy will know." Then I got to thinking that was a pretty good idea, especially since it was that "Team up North" that the Buckeyes beat. So, for those of you who didn't see the game on ESPN this evening (I'm guessing just about all of you), Ohio State defeated UM 76-63. GO BUCKEYES!!!!!

Ohio State defeats Purdue (Part II)

As promised last night, here is part two of this post. The Boilermakers put up a good fight, especially in the first half, but the Buckeye's heralded freshman class prevailed in the second half. Purdue hung around within 10 points most of the game, and the game was played closer than the 18-point final margin. As an added bonus, Indiana beat Wisconsin tonight allowing the Buckeyes to move into a tie for first place in the Big Ten.

I was a little surprised that the game didn't sell out. I'm sure that more Buckeye fans would have made the trip had the game been on a Saturday. I bought the tickets like 6 weeks ago thinking the game might sell out..... I didn't want to miss out on seeing Ohio State when they came to town. It was great to have my sister from Indy come up for the game as well.

Ohio State defeats Purdue (Part I)

Last night I had the pleasure of watching the #5 ranked Ohio State lady Buckeyes defeat Purdue... along with Alfred, Annie, and SooAnn. Besides the exciting Buckeye victory, a highlight of the evening was stepping outside of the arena to find it snowing. Annie got sooooo excited, snow is still a brand new experience for her. I also had the privilege of throwing a snowball at Alfred, a first for him. Actually it was more of a loose wad of snow, since it wasn't very sticky, but I think it counts. Stay tuned for "Ohio State defeats Purdue (Part II)"... coming up after the men's game Wednesday evening.

Be sure to check out the post below. This was a two-post evening for me.

Thanks for signing in....

Thank you everyone who answered the roll call. Although I did not quite reach the 30+ comments that M.Kate and GKnee have achieved recently, 28 was not too far off. (Not that this is some kind of competition or anything). And as an added bonus, I learned a lot about the saran-wrapping incident. Near as I can figure, based on the responses, here is what happened last Saturday evening:
1) The birthday party for Dana ends at around 8:15 PM. Very early compared to the late-night party the night before, but commendable since everyone obviously wanted to get home early so as to be well-rested for church on Sunday.
2) Abby, out of the kindness of her heart, decides to return the balloons that Eric and I helped inflate for the party earlier that day. So she drives over to our place, opens Eric's minivan with the key she posesses, and returns many of the balloons to the vehicle. (I'm not sure why she did not also return the streamers we helped hang up... perhaps because of #3).
3) Meanwhile, while she is placing the balloons in Eric's vehicle, she is scared off by another vehicle pulling in the driveway and hurries away, forgetting to lock the door.
4) Inside this vehicle is a group of guys coming from playing pool at the Union. Their plan all evening was to saran-wrap Eric's Noni-van and my car, as evidenced by Lee's "forgetting" to call me and Eric to invite us to play pool. An added bonus was that they found Eric's vehicle unlocked and could saran-wrap the inside.

I would like to thank all of the commenters for helping to clarify the events of the evening. I apologize profusely from the bottom of my heart for falsely accusing the ladies. And I feel horrible about the "electronic tissue" comment. How insensitive of me.

Roll Call

After seeing the success of GKnee's roll-call, I've decided to do one of my own. In addition to indicating that you have read this post... please also indicate whether or not you had anything to do with (or have any pertinent information regarding) the saran-wrapping of my car last evening. I have a pretty good idea of who reads my blog, so any of you that do not respond in a timely fashion will be presumed guilty. :) (M.E., Wendles, Gknee, Jodi, Dana, Abby.... you are at the top of the list) Retribution will be swift and just.

My Nephew

Here are a couple of photos of my nephew, Calix, taken around Christmas. I'm pleased to see him reading and playing the piano, a couple of activities that I really enjoy. And, as you can see, his reading is quite advanced for his age. This was not a staged photo... I had given him a little Golden Book as a gift, but then the next time I turn around he was standing there reading Reader's Digest!

Speaking of the piano, I've recently started practicing again after a long, long, long, long hiatus. This was spurred on by a man I met out in Utah last week. Every evening, he went and found a piano at Utah State University to practice on. He was not getting ready for any performance or anything, but just enjoyed playing classical music. So I got to thinking that if he went to so much trouble to practice while on a business trip, what is my excuse for walking by my digital piano multiple times every day without touching it? So, I've gotten out some of the classical music I used to play and am amazed how quickly it comes back. Our brains are truly amazing creations... how connections with my fingers I haven't used in so long still seem to be there, just waiting for me to open up the music book and start to play.... even if it is rusty the first few times through. I was thinking yesterday about how amazing modern computers are.... and yet the human brain that God has created is so much, much, much more powerful. It is truly awe-inspiring.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy playing the piano and how relaxing it can be. Playing has also brought back memories of my much younger years and the house I grew up in where I first learned these songs. Have you ever lost interest in or stopped doing something you enjoy, and forgotten how much you enjoyed it?

Well, it is getting late. I think I will go play a few notes and read a few pages before getting some rest.

West Side Lunch

Here are a couple of photos from today's "West Side Lunch" at the Parthenon. The highlight was having my co-worker from India, Alfred, and his wife of less than a month, Seema, join the gang. Thanks GKnee for organizing these lunches!

Lunch at the Partnenon reminded me of a family camping vacation many years ago when we visited the Parthenon in Nashville, TN (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenon_(Nashville)). On that trip, we also went to Opryland, watched the Grand Ole Opry from the nose-bleed seats, and walked through the lovely atrium of the Opryland Hotel. I was probably around 11 at the time. I distinctly remember a girl about my age waving at me from one of the balconys overlooking the atrium... although the friends I was walking around with all said the same thing. I guess I will never know...

I'm thankful for all the good times that we had as a family on these vacations and for all the neat places (historical and otherwise) we saw.... Though I don't suppose that my appreciation always showed too well on some of the tours....

Colts Win!!!!

I returned home a few minutes ago from watching the Colts win in the AFC Championship game with a group from the Career class ABF. A fun time was had by all. The evening started out eerily similarly to the Ohio State game a couple of weeks ago, with the Colts falling behind 21-3 in the first half. But then the Colts started their comeback with a field goal just before halftime which gave the group a glimmer of hope. And then came the second half comeback and very exciting finish!!! Thanks Abby for opening up your place for the party!!!

Next up will be the I-65 Super Bowl in a couple of weeks.... I'm sure things will be interesting here in the Lafayette area with lots of fans for both the Bears and the Colts. I imagine it will be something like the rivalry between the Red Sox and Yankees that I experienced while living in Connecticut!

Comet McNaught

Check out www.spaceweather.com for some great photos of Comet McNaught! These photos are almost enough to make me buy tickets to somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere (Australia would be great!). This is the brightest comet in my lifetime so far! It was visible from the Northern Hemisphere before last weekend, but the info I got was always a day or two old so I never saw it. It was even visible during the daytime last weekend, but I didn't find that out until it was too late. So, I'll have to settle for enjoying the photos from down under.

I remember seeing Comet Hyakutake and Comet Hale-Bopp back in the mid-90's. Hale-Bopp was especially awe-inspiring and it hung around for several weeks. That must have been 1996 or 1997, since I was just starting grad-school at Penn State.

I'm off to Indy tomorrow for a Christmas gathering with my mom's side of the family. Last Saturday was Christmas with my dad's side of the family in Fort Wayne. We're really stretching out Christmas! It's great to be able to see relatives a lot more often now that I'm living back in the Midwest!

GO COLTS!!!! and GO BEARS!!!!

Cache Valley Utah

Yesterday I traveled to Logan, Utah, to attend some training for work. The 1.5 hour drive from Salt Lake City to Logan was very enjoyable with snow-covered mountains in view the entire way. Logan itself is located in Cache Valley and there are mountains (up to about 9000') in all directions. The shuttle driver even stopped along the road for a minute at one of the most scenic spots so I could take some photos. I definitely need to come back to this part of the country some day when I have more time to travel around and give my camera some good use taking photos of God's creation.

After such unusually mild winter weather in Indiana for the past month, the -5 F temperature this morning was invigorating. It was a sunny day with calm wind so it didn't feel super cold. And it's nice to see some snow on the ground.

The training today was interesting and will be helpful for my job. There are about 10 people in the class from places ranging from Long Island, NY, to South Dakota to just down the road. It was fun to talk to them and learn more about their various parts of the country and different lines of work. The company took us out to a very tasty 2-hour lunch at a nice place. I got the Cajun Shrimp Alfredo pasta. I don't think the break will be quite as long tomorrow, though, since I think we are a little behind where the instructors want us to be in the training.

My first blog

Well, after a few weeks of contemplating entering the world of the blog, I have finally set mine up. Unfortunately, I don't have anything profound to say at the moment.... except that (in the words of Eric) "sleep is good." More posts to follow soon....