Days like this...

Days like this it is easy to like my job. This morning the street was covered by an inch of ice, so I got up early to give myself time to get in to work. Figured it would melt as the day warmed up. The freezing rain that fell on top of last night's snow was coated in another inch of sleet before it started snowing REAL hard. Dr. Rockstar told his lab to go home early, and Dr. Boss is out of town (in San Diego), so I deferred to Dr. Rockstar's wisdom. Most of the lab is gone to a different meeting, so I had planned to fill my time with some organizational tasks to make use of the extra space and quiet- nothing that can't wait. We 'survivors' all decided to cut our losses and head home before the roads got ugly. Caught a bus home 4 hours early and got to shovel the sidewalk and drink hot chocolate. Great Job!

I am home now watching the weather. They keep contrasting "Winter Weather Warnings" with updates from the weather in Tampa. Where the Super Bowl is going to be.

Weekend in the Windy City

As I hinted, I just got back from a very quick trip to Chicago for a one day professional meeting. This was a very good meeting, science-wise, and also very different from the last meeting that I went to in that Dr.Boss was there, and he checked up on me and the 4 undergrads I was traveling with several times.

We arrived in the middle of a VERY cold snap, and headed to Evanston, near Northwestern University on Friday night. We didn't have much more time than to enjoy a true Chicago deep dish pizza- but that was quite a Treat. A Chicago deep dish is not a pizza made on a thick and fluffy crust like I'd thought. The crust was quite thin in the deep cake pan, but it was spread and extra inch up the side of the pan, so that all the toppings and juices were sealed inside. And there was a LOT in there- cheese was the bottom layer, which kept the crust crispy, then sausage and onion and mushrooms and finally chopped tomotoes on top. It was much more like a savory pie- and I could only eat one peice.

The day of the meeting we enjoyed some talks and endeavored to meet some new people. Dr. Boss gave the keynote talk, and at the end he said "I have a graduate student with a poster here that I recommend you all check out." Dr. Boss is a very big deal in our field, so pretty much everyone did exactly what he said. I've never had so many people be interested in my research- I am positively hoarse today still!

Our flight home was later on Sunday, so we got to check out downtown Chicago- we drive in on Lake Shore Drive, and headed to the 96th floor of the John Hancock Building to enjoy lunch and an incredible view! Yes, I regret leaving my camera. Strangely, the best view of downtown and the Sears Tower was out of the woman's restroom. We also went to Millennium Park and say the giant bean. Chicago is of course much bigger than Pittsburgh, and has a similar long history and immigrant population. Beautiful architecture and interesting things to see all around- though it was pretty nippy.

Our flight home took place during the end of the Eagles vs Cardinals and the first quarter of Steelers vs Ravens. FYI- this was the last round of play-offs before the Superbowl. We parked ourselves in front of a TV playing the game and ate a chicago dog, which made me wonder why there aren't more fat people in Chicago. One of my travel companions had packed her jersey with her to put on in the airport. She was also the one keeping us up to the minute via iPhone once we left the TV.

Pittsburgh's airport is about 30 mins outside of the city, and it can take much longer to negotiate the tunnel if there are lots of cars on the road. When we arrived, in the middle of the second quarter, there was no traffic. We hardly saw a dozen other cars on the road. I've mentioned that Pittsburgh really gets behind their football, and this VERY important game was no exception. The city was rapt with anticipation. Our route home took us past the screaming stadium, but not close enough to see the men in action. When the Steelers finally won, we could hear the fireworks from our apartment. Still Tuesday, newspapers were front to fold and then some news about the Steelers- did headlines in other papers cover any different news Tuesday?

Also wants to travel!

Well, with regards to travel, I'm actually tasked with figuring out my 'personal travel' list pretty soon. Japan was my pick, and Costa Rica was Jessie's. Jess is gung-ho about China, which makes me a little wary unless we could get some sort of guidance, either professional or a friend, to take us around (we totally could). But it's my turn to pick a place, and after Japan, my list is pretty much empty, so I'm watching everyone's list with interest. I've never really done the 'Europe' trip, which could be interesting, but I don't know what I'd do at most places, and 'seeing old buildings' could get old after a while. So I've been tasked with figuring out where I would like to go on vacation this year, and soon. Thanks for all the suggestions, then!

Though I may end up getting a bonus free trip to England. For work! The details are still rolling in, but it sounds like Ticom wants to send me to England for a week to help support one of the projects I'm on. I don't have all (read: any) specifics yet, but it sounds pretty fun, and Jess is determined, if I go, to fly out with me, for at least part of it, and have ourselves a discount bonus England vacation. Whee!

Jess and I have had a pretty busy week, actually. Jess did a lot of roller derby practice to make up her requirements of 8 a month, and she got a pretty spectacular bruise on her rear end when they were practicing with a partner and her partner kept her skate in the wrong place and Jess landed right on the wheel. Ouch. We've taken some pictures, they'll just need to be...carefully cropped.

We went out shopping this weekend for random stuff and I ended up in Best Buy checking out various home theater systems. I had found one I liked, but the price was a little more than I was hoping to pay. Jess came up as I was thinking and told me 'well we use it all the time, you should just buy it' and then proceeded to buy me a preposterous amount of A/V gear for the home. So in short, I have the best wife in the world. I've stuck the speakers on the wall and even routed the wires all sexy and hidden-like, so before long we'll be listening to Rock Band MUCH LOUDER.

Of course, in exchange for all my audio gear, I bought her a tree! We wanted to put another tree up in the backyard for privacy and because Jess really likes trees, especially ones she can climb. We got a Burr Oak and had it delivered over the weekend. Three burly dudes did the big work of delivering the 100 gallon tree (that's the size of the pot it was in) and digging a hole for it. They had to bust up some seriously big rocks to do it. But no granite, so it went okay. They piled up some mulch and layed down some fertilizer too, and put in some posts to keep it upright. Seriously professional job. I'll put some pics and videos of that, and the rest of our house, pretty soon.

Brief notes!: House is coming together, we really just have to figure out our entertainment center and assemble a master bedroom. I've discovered that I can bike to Wing Tsun pretty easily, so we can put off buying a second car for a while. The front door blew open while the tree was being delivered and the cats got out of the house. I found Tigger in the garden, and Nagano came back when I called. I've turned Jess onto the joys of NPR for our morning drive to work, we get to listen to 'All things considered' and the Austin Music Minute. Jessie has officially changed her last name, or at least started the process.

Consider yourself updated.

-N

My Travel Wish list

Great comments! I'll update later about both my trip to Chicago and a few more musings on how strange and enthralling people are here about their football- but without further ado- my Travel wishlist:

International Travel to Dos

Chengdu with Shaoshu
Iceland- Pools and motorsports
Brazil-Carnaval
Chile/Argentina Wine Tour
Ireland and UK- (Filming of Top Gear)
Hong Kong/Singapore
Australia/New Zealand
Morocco
Egypt
Ecuador- Galapagos Islands

Domestic

New York City
Austin- Roller Derby
San Francisco- Kelso and the Seguins
Boston
Philadelphia- Patriotic History tour
Toronto
Niagara Falls
Cleveland
Detroit Auto Show

It's not too late for the siblings to weigh in! I do notice quite a lot of similarities in our lists- including making trips to go see motorsports, and counting Canadian destinations as domestic. Is it time for a vote? Where are we all going next?

A challenge:Travel Wish List

Hi, My name is Sandlin, and I have insatiable wanderlust.

In part, this is to blame on the World Map we put up behind our couch. It passively reminds us about the vast swaths of the earth that we have never been remotely close to stepping foot in. Part of this is to blame on Dr. Rockstar, too. Today in lab meeting he announced that in addition to the pending travel arrangements with the Aussies, he'd need to start planning a trip to Malawi and Madagascar. I want to go to Madagascar! It is on my life list.

This of course marinates in an atmosphere that is very forgiving of those with wanderlust. My baymate Teresa and I are planning our next trip to NYC this spring. My siblings are ALWAYS going to really exciting places. Our trip to Mexico was long anticipated- it was basically my 'finished comps' gift and Finish Teaching incentive. And that was wonderful! And easy! And I want to do it again. And more!

I wonder about having this conversation with my boss- how much do I have to get done here to justify taking huge chunks of time away?

For the moment I am coping with these urges by watching the map instead of the TV, and making lists. Tonight, we made a list of our Top 10ish Travel Destinations- one for domestic location, one for international. These are places we think we might be able to get to in the next say, 3 years- politically stable, affordable, exciting, exotic locations. Except for Cleveland, which is none of the above.

I'll publish the lists IF you'll meet my challenge, loyal readers. Let's call this the first of many future Blog challenges to encourage discussion and commentary. Dear Readers, your challenge is this: throw up your own lists. Doesn't have to be 10 (we couldn't get our lists that narrow), or in order, any entry will qualify. Maybe we'll all have somewhere in common we can all go to next. Let's share a travel daydream.

Mayor makes headlines for being a Steelers Fan

This is the kind of fanaticism I've mentioned before. I found this link of CNN's homepage:

Pittsburgh Mayor Changes Name From Ravenstahl To 'Steeler'stahl

FYI- I'll be flying back from Chicago during the play-offs. That shouldn't stop any of you from cheering yourselves hoarse in your own living rooms.

Jessie's Highlight Reel

Okay, finished up the movie with some of Jessie's best, though very fuzzy, moments. There's some extra before-and-after stuff that wasn't in the previous movie, so give it a watch and just assume that if you see someone doing something awesome, and they're wearing a white shirt, it's Jessie.



-N

Jessie's Full Game

Hey,

So I decided not to make you guys wait anymore. Here's pretty much all the raw footage of Jessie in her first roller derby game. I split it up into two movies. In a bit, probably a few days, I'll finish up my 'highlight reel', if you want to wait to see that. Enjoy.

Part 1


Part 2


-N

I am out of cinnamon again.

No, I didn't make Christmas cookies. The Ceylon cinnamon I get at Penzey's so flavorful, it is easy to throw into recipes with wild abandon, and it causes your food to taste monsterously more delicious.

In our farmshare last week, we got squash, potatoes and frozen tomotoes. Do you know the perfect winter recipe for potatoes squash and tomatoes, that tastes much sunnier than a winter recipe? This Moroccan Chickpea and Squash Stew. Not exactly that one, I tempered the whole situation for better use in the crockpot. ...and then I got so excited when I got home that all I had to do for dinner was make couscous, I forgot about the olives and lemons- not that I have pickled lemons. Even Matt, who doesn't like squash, enjoyed it. Since the recipe was very delicious, seasonal and easy on the waist-line, I thought I'd share.

I sauteed an onion with garlic and a tablespoon each of cinnamon and cumin. Obviously you could skip this, but toasting your spices adds a little depth. I loaded the crockpot with that, a diced (peeled) butternut squash, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of Chickpeas and diced potatoes. Then I filled in the space with chicken broth and V8 (for vitamins), and let it go all day on low. I served it with whole wheat couscous mixed with frozen cilantro cubes.

We're an Old Married Couple now

I am reminded of this after watching Noel and Jessie's first Christmas together- so cute I pinched my own cheeks. It's not like Matt and I have so many more holidays under our belt, but we seem to have very quickly made the transition to being Old People. Let me explain.

This week Matt and I were both sick. I was managing the colorful symptoms of Corral Attack in Mexico (still)- which somehow transitioned into gastritis, how old am I?-, and Matt picked up a respiratory thing while we were flying. He actually took 3 days off work to sleep. Between the two of us, we've been eating nothing but soup and toast all week- although I managed to get back to work a bit by Thursday, mostly to avoid Matt's germs. We take turns bringing water and raiding the medicine cabinet, very romantic.

Last night at bed time, it was my turn to go to the medicine cabinet- a round of Advil for the house! Matt only ever takes one Advil at a time ("It says to take the lowest effective dose"), and he usually pours out a handful of my mixed Advil TM and Kirkland Ibuprofen so he can select one of the candy-coated pills. I don't. Crawling back into bed, I passed him his one Ibuprofen. He looked at it and, just as I had my mouth full of water and pills, says "Why do they even make these without candy coating? They taste like mud. Why would anyone want to take mud pills when they are sick?" I almost shot water and pills out my nose. And then I had to try to make him laugh while he took his pill.

It reminded me that one of my favorite parts about being married is laughing just before I fall asleep. And this made me optimistic that we'll keep laughing even when we are passing hearing aids and fiber supplements back and forth to each other.

ChristmasTime, ba da da baaa da da.

Behold, I have created a movie!


I don't know if you can tell, but this movie is in *WIDE SCREEN* mode. Tell me what you think of it. Unnecessary? I experimented a little bit on this one to see how it would look. It's also possible to do 'high def'-ier video on youtube, but I'm not sure how yet.

Next up will be the Jesta Menace Highlight reel. Probably sometime this weekend.

Also, my new years resolution is to start composing music this year. Which means I have to finish my book. So far I've put in at least an hour on my book every day. So progress is being made. Yay!

EDIT: Hey, check this out. Click on *THIS LINK* and you should be able to watch the video in HIGH(er) DEFINITION. Looks nice.

-N

Who's got a great job?

Ran across this article listing the best and worst jobs, and ranked by some career site.

Electrical Engineer ranks #62, Optometrist #63- general practice Physician is #142! Guess Dad is going to be relieved I didn't go to Med School afterall.

Apparently long hours and minimum wage rank well here (take a long hard look at #4), so I don't recommend a career change based on this.

Part 2: Sunrise in Cancun- and other joys of travel

Next round of pictures!

After we'd completely mellowed out on the Isla, we headed back to the mainland to rent a car and begin our adventures seeing ruins. When we arrived at Hertz, they told us they only had a PT cruiser left, and Matt said that just wouldn't do. Too big. Also, he hates them. He finally got avis to rent us a VW Pointer- a cute car you don't see in the states- and he hit the road to Valladolid. We took the main toll road out of cancun, it has one real exit, but there are still vendors along the road- so you could get lunch and a beer. We also had to go through a couple of military checkpoints. Nothing makes you cling to your dictionary like 18 year olds with semi automatics, but they waved us white folk through every time.

Valladolid is an old colonial town, even number streets are NS, odd are EW- so it was unbeleivable easy to navigate. Valladolid has a much better middle class then the Isla, none of the tar paper shacks we saw on the Isla, at least in town. We stayed right in the central plaza, which was busy with tour bus visits, vendors and people heading to and from the church. That afternoon we went to see the Cenote Zaci. The Cenote is a geological formation, a sink hole made in the limestone- often full of stalactites and stalagmites and always with an azure pool. Cenote Zaci is not the most dramatic, but easily the most accessible- it is right in Valladolid. People swim in the pools, and the formations were said to be sacred to the Mayans. After indulging in a nap- interrupted only slightly by the arrival of a thousand screeching lunatic Melodious Blackbirds- we enjoyed the BEST MAYAN FOOD ever to grace a fiesta colored table cloth, next door to our hotel. We had pollo pibil, quesadillas and guacamole and Mayan drinking chocolate. Ooo... the drinking chocolate is more like a complexly spice hot cocoa- with chipotle, and orange and cinnamon. Thank goodness for the Maya.

The next day we had the ambitious plan to see the ruin of Chichen Itza in the morning and Ek'Balam in the afternoon. Chichen Itza is an incredibly important site, there are maybe dozens of structures there, very well preserved and extensively studied. This includes Mexico's largest ball court, the Sacred Cenote, and alter of skulls, the thousand pillars, several bath houses.... it went on and on. Chichen Itza taught us a lot about ancient Mayans, so to respect the site, a lot of the REALLY fabulous stuff is closed to the public. Don't get me wrong, it still took us hours to see everything (and buy our souvenirs), but there is something awesome about being able to climb to the top of the pyramid, and look out at the mostly unmarked jungle.

At Ek'Balam, we could do this. This site has only been excavated since the 1990s, and they aren't don't yet. In some photos there are rocks filling door ways, tarps and palapas cover stucco glyphs that are still being studied. Ek'Balam is Mexico's tallest pyramid. Although it isn't clear on 4 side yet, when you summit this pyramid you can see vast Yucatan jungle laid out in front of you. There are fewer structures at Ek'Balam, a ball court and a second tower, but it is so much fun to be able to walk around all these things. Something you should know before you start scaling pyramids though, is that Mayans were small people. Little feet and stature mean sometimes tiny stairs and low roofs.

Our final ruin was the ruin at Coba, this site is very spread out- over several kilometers- and boasts Mexico's second highest pyramid, as well as an ideal spot for watching birds. Many of the trees are still growing around and in the ruins, which provide nice shelter for jungle birds. Driving out to this site, we got a full taste of Mexico's roads. There are decently marked majorish seeming highways that connect through the middle of villages (or the villages grew up to meet them). To help drivers appropriately adjust their speed on arrival to such a place, the highway is littered with topes, or any manner of speed bump. Some are just little lumps, others are large pedestrian crosswalks your car has to traverse, some are abruptly steep apparent paving errors. This makes your time of travel over a distance hard to predict, but we made it to Coba with loads of time to enjoy and still get Betty to the airport in time.

For our last night in Mexico, Matt and I check in to a Resort Spa in the Zona Hotelera of Cancun, Le Meridian. They had all the silly accoutrement like cascading pools, lawn chairs on the beach, an over the top restaurants (where they didn't serve Mexican food). Getting to see the Mexico that everyone else saw- this is like Vegas with less gambling and more tequila- would leave you to believe that Mexico is an opulently rich country with a penchant for bad guacamole. It was a very nice place to stay- relaxing, everything is in English so no stress, and I can see this as a poor-man's Saint Tropez. We got up early to catch our plane, and ducked outside to see a violently beautiful sunrise. If only every aspect of our vacation had been so rosy.

I'd go back to Mexico in a heartbeat- there was a lot to see, and it was easy to get around and everyone was very accommodating. However, we'll probably go elsewhere for our next trip...

Currently Reporting From My Living Room

HOUSE!

So we're most of the way to getting our house turned into a home. As you can tell, we have internet set up, which is *very important*, and much, though not all, of our stuff is in its proper place, at least for now.

The upstairs is...well, empty. The master bedroom and bath have nothing in them. We just closed off the doors for now. We moved both of our beds into the guest bedrooms while planning to get a larger bed for ourselves (and the cats), so the master bedroom is not occupied. I'm currently posting this from one of the other bedrooms upstairs...let's just call it the blogging bedroom. It's the bedroom we use for writing blogs. I just decided that. We have so many extra rooms we can just assign random ones for random tasks. It's not like they're doing anything else.

The rest of the upstairs rooms contain little things here and there, but we haven't even bothered to set the other guest bed up upstairs. We're not using it. We're pretty much living downstairs, where the action is. The office, such as it is, is pretty much together, and consists of two computer desks and some lamps. The library is still a mess, but that's mostly because I want to go get some more shelves to store all our books and random displayables.

The Living room is pretty well set up too, but mostly empty. We went out and bought ourselves a reclining sofa and love seat after finding ones we liked, but they won't give you a delivery window, so we had to wait until next Saturday to deliver, being as we don't really have the luxury of sitting around all day while they do-or-do-not show up. We work, after all.

We've been in and out of a few places looking for beds/nightstands/chests of drawers that we like too, but we haven't found anything yet. So for the moment, we sleep downstairs in one of our 'guest bedrooms'. The cats, too, have adjusted well to their new house. Nagano likes running up and down stairs and is adorable when he slips on the concrete floors and whumps into things. Tigger has just found a few place where he can sleep and he's happy.

Much of our house-assembly work has been slowed, though, with the impending start of JESSIE's FIRST ROLLER DERBY GAME! So exciting! It happens tonight, and it's her team (the league champions) against the all-stars (all-scars) from the rest of the league. I just have to keep reminding her though, that it's just a game, and she's doing it because she likes to skate. She's a little nervous, and between that and the house, we've had to slow down and take some cuddle-breaks to help relax.

Yes, there are pictures and video of the new house and I'll put some stuff up from Jessie's first game, but I'm busy with a house and a host of new video games, so be patient. It's coming, promise.

Happy new year!

-N

Part 1: Christmas in the Yucatan

As you may have heard, from my endless bragging or copious rubbing it in, I got to spend my Christmas break in Mexico with Matt and his mom. We are home now, and I've posted the first album of photos here. We flew in to Cancun late Christmas Eve and immediately caught a ferry to the Isla Mujeres (Island of Women), a photogenic Caribbean Island to immediately get to the business of relaxing.

We stayed in the cozy Casa Kubena, a casita with the water reservoir on the roof, gas for the stove in a 3 foot tank outside and wifi. The screens didn't seal well, but we had regular gecko and anole visits that seemed to keep the bugs in check. There is a picture of a 5 gal jug of water- this is how we got our drinking water- Matt carrying these jugs from the tienda 2 doors down.

On Christmas day, we took a walk to the beach on the Caribbean side. We ate a picnic, collected shells and watched Frigate Birds. Can you feel the stress of the semester melting away?? The next day we caught the bus into Centro- the downtown area of the Isla. This is where the tourist shops are, the main hotels and restaurants, and all the businesses wanting to take you diving, snorkeling, fishing. Our hosts (ex-pats), recommended we go to the fisherman's Co-operative to take a trip to the Bird Sanctuary on Contoy with their friend Raul. We got that set up for the next day, and enjoyed taking in the beaches, shops, markets and ice cream that Centro has to offer. Back at the Casita, we also found the Loncheria Condor- these nice folks took care of most of our cooking for the rest of the trip. Why? at 7 pesos (50 cents) a taco- we could eat like kings within a block of our house. And the carne asada was great! This is the neighborhood diner as it were- no one here spoke English but they were terrifically patient with us every time we came by.

The trip to Contoy was dreamy- although if you weren't into the 'speeding across the ocean in a small fiberglass boat' thing, I guess the transit might undo the tranquility of the island. The jungle there was full of wildlife- birds especially, but also hermit crabs and lizards of all shapes and sizes. The reef in the cove also hid dozens of exotic 'only in the aquarium, and never that big/ many' specimens. The Magnificent Frigatebirds were a sight to behold too- they filled the mangrove trees, weighting down the branches into the lagoon, and making a deep cooing noise that slowed down pigeons. Our host, Captain Raul, was really wonderful too- he cooked up great food, showed us all the great things to do on the island and piloted us safely back and forth. Once back to Isla Mujeres, we decided to try the Fresh, cold Coconuts being sold on the street. Ah, tropical refreshment.

We ended up 'taking the cure' on the beach the next couple days- reading paperbacks, eating well, enjoying the company and sleeping a lot. With all that white sand beach and the island mentality, it was hard not to let the tension just sweep away. Ahh... The photo album shows a sunset we enjoyed a palapa bar on the dock over fish tacos. Four beers and guacamole for US$7? Life is good.

Let me know what you think of the pictures, I'll be posting one of our visit to 3 separate Mayan Ruins soon.