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?