weather progression

day 1 : snow past your knees.
cross-country skied to pyramid point.


day 2 : fog covered the entire state of michigan as we tried to drive home. i wondered if it was some kind of conspiracy by the cyborgs to block something sinister from the view of the satellites.



day 3 : arrived back in the STL to temps in the 50s.


this is crazy-making.

a not-so-holiday message

We bought these awesome cards from apak to use for our holiday cards this year and then got so busy that we barely sent any of them out.  so, i guess i'm ruining the surprise for next year, but by then you will have forgotten, right?

... and while i'm on the subject, I want to ask about something.  To date we have received four holiday cards from people our own age addressed to "Mr. and Mrs. Husband's Name" and it totally caught me off guard.

Is this some kind of post-modern-Linda Hirshman-backlash-feminism? Is it a Midwest-proper thing? 

I don't go by Mrs., so the use of "Mrs. Husbands Name" seems so dated and parochial.  

Am I wrong?  Am I missing something?  

This coincided with PKM booking a ticket for me to come to her engagement party in NY with my former last name.   And it all reminded me of how the whole name-changing business is both so abstract and yet so real...  It seems merely philosophical until you go to get a new social security card; a process that seemed eerily simple, given what I felt was the gravity of the situation. 

Your name is your identity, but yet you are still you when it changes... and then someone wipes the former you out of it all together with one address label.  It makes my head feel all foggy.  

To each her own, definitely, and I mean no offense to those who prefer it the old-school way. As the Hirshman-haters have pointed out (and I'm no lover, per se), we have at least earned the right to choose.

But for the record, my first name still exists.  

Action figures

You don't know from flattered until you have had your likeness crafted out of toilet papers tubes.

I love hand-made gifts!  Thanks, E!

(p.s.--you can't really see it in this pic, but I am holding a clipboard and ruler in one hand--all fieldwork style-- and 2 (two!!) purses in the other hand.  This woman knows me well...)

almost there

Current contents of my purse:

• Tylenol sinus
• Mucinex
• 5days-to-lift-off Zpack of burly antibiotics
• Sinus Rinse nasal irrigation bottle (free from the clinic!)
• hot toddy. kidding, that's at home.

Current contents of my brain:

• lots of arcane facts about detecting vegetation with satellites
• things about radars
  
• the macroecology of Australian frogs
• graphs and charts and power point presentation slides

Two more papers and I can get back to posting about my awesome new Christmas tree.

why i love my friends

I was telling Leslie about the crazy end-of-semester that I am experiencing right now and to cheer me up she sent this:



Which is possibly my favorite segment of Sesame Street ever, right next to the one where the girl takes her llama to the dentist, and the amazing stop animation of Teeny Little Super Guy.


Ah, good times.

>>>>>>>> UPDATE: in a random act of synergy, MadPainter also just posted an awesome SS video. I always loved that art deco house...

winning bids

Complete set of retro holiday glee.  Mine for less than $40 (before shipping).

I love ebay. 

Let the decorating begin!

thanksgiving highlights day 1

We started Thanksgiving day with a walk around the riverside & Arch grounds.





We had so much fun wandering around and discovering the parade that we got home late and the turkey went in 2 hrs. later than we had intended. And it was several pounds heavier than we remembered. And so we ate a lot later than we thought we would.

I'm including the following pic for 2 reasons:

1. b/c this will henceforth be known as the year I scandalized the family by forgetting to change out of my t-shirt into something nicer before we sat down to dinner. Scandalized!

2. look at that turkey!!! browned to perfection & oh so juicy.


A few other highlights in addition to all the great food we ate at dinner:

1. The turkey was so big (and therefore it took so long to cook) that I had enough down time to laze around on the couch with the dog for an hour in front of the fire.

2. Mimosas! Brilliant! And a new T-day tradition, if you ask me.

3. Sarah's Jell-o mold. Excellent.

weather reports

updates from my Twitterific feed...


I love that in these days of crazy technology & ever-evolving forms of communication, the number one thing people still love to communicate about is the weather.

what did you do this weekend?

We hosted a smushy-face convention.

out of context

Bits of text message conversations saved on my phone:

From me:


Can you even stand the
amazing awesomeness?!

I am so eating peanut butter
out of the jar right now.

Thanks man. I'm drinking
Belgian beers. Watchout!


Official verdict: cabbage on
sandwich = so good. Who knew?



From others:

So many kinds of awesome.

All I hear from McCain is 'old old old'

Mathematically impossible

Drinking Stag*

*Not related to this post. And while it may have been funny if i had exchanged numbers with that pseudo rock star, the friendship would have ended with that text. But when it came from my husband it seemed cute and endearing. I guess that's why we're married.