On the Road Again

Well, today we are saying goodbye to snowy Minnesota for a while...we will be in snowy Wisconsin, snowy Illinois, and then eventually back in snowy Minnesota...so its not so much a change of scenery as a change of company that we are seeking!

We will be back in the Cities about December 30, so to those of you here, we'll see you then. To those of you we are on our way to visit: see you soon! And to everyone, Merry Christmas :-)

Cold.

I just wanted to say that its cold.

Now I know it can get much much colder here--and it probably will soon. But I thought it was worth posting to make the observation that, this morning it was warmer in Barrow, Alaska than it was here. Where is Barrow, Alaska, you say? Why is it significant that it was warmer there than here? Barrow is the northern most city in the United States. It lies ABOVE the Arctic Circle. And, in Barrow, Alaska, at 1250 p.m. on November 18, the sun dips below the horizon and is NOT SEEN again until 1151 a.m. on January 24!! And yet they managed to have a higher temperature than us this morning--not by much I'll grant you, only a few degrees--but then again, THEY DON'T HAVE A SUN!

In light of all this, I would just like to reiterate how much I love this state. Minnesota, hail to thee!

The Best Christmas Present

I would like you to introduce my new friend, the best Christmas present ever, which Ioan surprised me with tonight: Ananaha.


There is a story about Ananaha, which I'm sure you all want to hear, so here goes:

Andy will be spending three weeks in South Africa this January, during which time Jessica will be at home and fending for herself...she will be lonely, no doubt. Thus, when we were recently at Costco, with Ioan, Jessica saws these enormous, soft, cuddly puppy dogs and declared that she had to buy one because it could be Andy's replacement while he was away--you know, so the bed didn't seem as large and whatnot. Visions of a large stuffed dog propped at the table "eating" dinner with Jess no doubt popped into Andy and Ioan's minds...

I didn't actually buy the dog though, because really, aren't there more "useful" and "needed" things I could spend our money on?

Incidentally, I have wanted a super-over-sized stuffed creature ever since I was a little girl. I remember seeing a huge white polar bear when I was little and asking for it. I got a familiar response from my Mom: "If you really want it, we can buy it and it will be your Christmas present...but it's expensive, so if you get this, it might be the only gift you get this Christmas." (What a great line, Mom! I'm so using that one...) So I didn't want the big polar bear badly enough to have it be potentially the ONLY thing I would get for Christmas...and I lived without it.

But every so often I would see similar large, stuffed, cuddly creatures and get a familiar longing...I've just always wanted one. And tonight, I got out of my car to see Ioan holding this gorgeous puppy!


As he is Andy's replacement--see the resemblance?--I've decided to name him Ananaha. (If you'd like to hear why this name has anything to do with Andy, you'll have to ask Alex for that story.)

Our exciting lives

Well, it seems like time to post some pictures...but what to take pictures of? Aha! Andy, in his brand-new (well, brand-new in the "bought used from Goodwill two nights ago" sense) brown corduroy pants!

And Jess's current knitting project. Despite a near draught of knitting for the week and a half surrounding Thanksgiving, I have not given it up! I was merely between projects...and now I am again mid-project. My sweater has finally been started! And here it is, thus far (this is the front):

The ribbing gave me a hard time, due to some difficulty with the pattern wording...but I finally figured out that all it was trying to tell me was to do ribbing with seed stitch in the middle, which I actually really like. It's been easy knitting since then.

The First Last

I experienced my first "last" of the semester today. It the last day of my class that meets on Friday mornings--next Friday will be finals week, and there is no final for this class, so today was our last session. This first last is the first in what, by this time next week, will seem like an onslaught of lasts...last classes, last paper written, last papers graded, last days of a semester that (as usual) somehow has not included all that I thought it would. What happened to all the things I thought I would accomplish this semester? And what about the promising classes I enrolled in, that on the first day seemed so (or atleast somewhat) interesting...have I really learned anything, aside from new ways to procrastinate, in the past four months?

So it goes with semesters. One by one the deadlines march by and before you know it you have a high school diploma, a college degree, etc. Amazing. But what do you take from it all? Do you actually remember any of that stuff? I wonder. In an attempt to gain an appreciation for what I have learned this semester, I've decided to make a list of things, one for each class this semester, that I know now, but did not before. Seems like a worthy challenge...here goes:

1. Friday morning seminar: I learned that if you email a PowerPoint presentation and then re-open it, even on the original computer, the included media files (e.g. audio files) are not really included at all--this can lead to an embarrassing snafu in class when you try desperately to get that great audio clip (that was working fine last night) to play.
2. Monday afternoon seminar: I learned that "stress" does not equal "bad," and that this is actually a quite important fact on many different levels. I also learned lots of complex-sounding new words, like psychoneuroendocrinology.
3. Tuesday afternoon seminar: I learned that faces are special...and not-so-special...and a bunch of other fun terms like voxel, Greeble, and fusiform face area.
4. Easy-does-it Saturday seminar: I learned that classes with non-degree seeking people move very slowly.

So there you have it. I guess I did learn something after all.

Another day, another...nap?

A whole day.

Gone.

What happens when you have no classes, no office hours, no meetings, no data collection to do?

You stay home.

You think "A whole day! I'll get so much work done on that paper I have to write!"

And then, somewhere between coffee in the morning and a nap in the afternoon, you remember who you are.

You are one of the best procrastinators you know. Why would you ever spend an entire day working? It's just against your nature.

But...we love you anyway...we just pity being you the day before something is due.

Apartment Status: Decorated

The apartment is decorated...and it's lovely. That's all I really have to say today.

Oh, and here's a picture both of our decorated tree, and of me (with the short hair--for those of you who have known me for more than a year or so, it's basically the same length I had it through most of high school and college).

















And, it snowed--not just a quarter inch flurry...it snowed all day, big white fluffy flakes!