Kendall's Blog

Last Post

2011-06-01T22:17:00.003-07:00

We've started a new family website/blog, which makes this blog a little unnecessary!

2008 Snow Storm

2009-11-09T15:23:00.004-08:00

I finally unearthed the pictures I took during our big snow storm before Christmas last year. We got almost two feet of snow in Tualatin with a bit of freezing rain in the middle that created an interesting snow-ice-snow sandwich. The whole area pretty much shut down (we get occasional snow here, but generally not in this quantity). Tualatin doesn't even own a snowplow (though they were very proud of their sanding plan). OMSI shut down for some of the days and on the days I did have to go to work, I took the bus. On the first day I rode it there was one hill we went up where another bus and some trucks hadn't made it. Everyone clapped for the driver at the top. After that day, the bus was on a snow route. We lost several limbs off our trees to the ice and an entire half of our neighbor's tree fell into our driveway. When it was finally time to head to Corvallis for the holiday, ODOT decided to close the I-5 so they could scrape ice off the Boone Bridge. It took about four hours to get to Corvallis on 99W (usually it takes about an hour and fifteen minutes on I-5 or just a little longer on 99W) driving in ice ruts that were several inches deep.

The snowy house:

James pulling giant pieces of ice off the car:

Moving some of the many branches that the ice felled from our trees:

Giant branch in the driveway:

Backyard chairs after the second wave:

More photos in the gallery...

Mexican Adventure

2009-11-09T14:41:00.005-08:00

A couple weeks ago we went on a quick trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for a friend's wedding. We stayed at a beach resort not too far from the villa where the wedding was held.

We spent almost all of our time relaxing on the beach under thatched umbrellas and swimming. The water was wonderfully warm and some of the waves were quite large.

One of the highlights for me was getting to release baby sea turtles. The resort is one of few in the area with a private beach, so nests from beaches all over Puerto Vallarta are brought to them to be kept protected until the eggs hatch. They then let guests help to release them. The turtles were super cute.

above photo by James Bartholomew

The resort was all-inclusive, which was awesome. We could eat and drink as much as we wanted without worrying at all about money and the food was amazing! We had delicious fish, the best fajitas ever and an incredibly yummy roasted cheese appetizer that our waiter prepared table side.

above photo by James Bartholomew

The wedding was beautiful and made for a wonderful weekend!

More photos in the gallery!

Road Trip

2009-08-31T19:14:00.004-07:00

Last month we went on a road trip to Iowa via several national parks and I've finally finished processing my photos!

Our first day we drove to Provo, Utah. It was the longest driving day of the trip and was pretty much just a mad dash, though the gorge was pretty as always and we saw lots of nice wind turbines. I especially liked some that were positioned at the mouth of a little canyon in Utah, though that was actually the second day when we continued on to Arches National Park. I had been to Arches once before, but it was still amazing. The rocks are so red and the formations so impressive (to the geologist and non-geologist alike), it really is astonishing that it all exists in one place.

When we arrived in Arches, we headed straight to the campground to claim a site which we felt lucky to get (we made sure to get there very early, and though there were still a few left when we got there, they filled quickly). The campground is adjacent to the Devil's Garden area of the park and is really beautiful. We were surrounded by red rocks on a little ridge with an amazing view:

The site (above) was nice, though somewhat lacking in shade. The high was about 100 degrees both days we were there and the temperature gets there fast and stays there all day and evening. It was like being in an oven.

Once we'd set up camp, we went and checked out Devil's Garden since we were right next to it. We hiked about a mile in through beautiful rock fins and saw landscape arch, which is the widest in the park:

After Devil's Garden we drove back to the front of the park and saw all of the things we'd driven by quickly in our quest to get a good campsite. Our favorite was Park Avenue, a little canyon between dramatically eroded blades of rock:

above photo by Random Tourist

We also visited Balanced Rock, the Windows and Delicate Arch among other things:

The next day, we headed out of Arches to neighboring Canyonlands National Park. Canyonlands is quite large and divided into three sections (literally, the Colorado and Green rivers separate the sections and make it impossible to drive to another without leaving the park). We visited the Island in the Sky section, which is the easiest to get to from Arches. It's basically a high plateau that looks down into the canyons that the rivers have cut, which are very dramatic:

It was windy that day, which helped tone down the heat a bit, but it still felt like a furnace! We did one little hike in Canyonlands to see Mesa Arch (yes, there are arches in Canyonlands too), which is a nifty arch right on the edge of a canyon rim:

After that we headed back to Arches and checked out a few more things we hadn't had a chance to see the day before, like the Fiery Furnace and Skyline Arch:

We then headed back to our campsite and found that our tent was one of few still standing in the wind, though it would occasionally deform and become concave then pop back up. After another hot night's sleep (fortunately the wind died down before it was time to go in the tent), we packed up camp and hit the road again, heading into Colorado. We only had a short drive that day, so we decided to add a stop in Colorado National Monument, which was a nifty drive along the rimrock of a valley:

The highway became a nifty feat of engineering as we headed into the mountains:

We found our reserved campsite in the Arapaho National Forest and luxuriated in the cool air:

The next morning we headed into Rocky Mountain National Park. We stopped at a spot with a nice view of a mountain and happened upon three young moose:

The mountain was nice too:

We headed up over the pass and saw lots of other nice mountains and stood on the continental divide:

above photo by James Bartholomew

Just on the other side of the pass we came across some elk with impressive antlers and James got a little creative in finding a good spot to photograph them from:

After a few more mountain views (above) we continued on to Iowa, our main destination, where we spent two nights. We had a nice visit with James' grandfather and picked up a trailer to bring back some beautiful furniture that he had built for James when he was young.

With the trailer in tow, we headed for North Dakota and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The campground in the park was full by the time we got there, so we checked out a nearby state park which turned out to be great, very peaceful and pretty:

The next day we explored the park, which is an area of badlands. There was lots of wildlife to see, including bison and prairie dogs:

The landscape was impressive too:

After finishing the loop of the park, we headed on to Montana. We had hoped to camp in the Deerlodge National Forest, but didn't have a reservation since there was a two night minimum. Reservations proved to be necessary as every site in the part of the forest we headed to was full, so it was on to Missoula where we spent the night in a motel and had a tasty dinner from the Pita Pit, though perhaps not as tasty as our camp cooking would have been.

From there we were homeward bound, arriving at home on a Sunday evening, our ninth day on the road. It was fast paced and a lot of driving, but a truly fabulous trip overall. We saw some amazing places and can't wait to explore more national parks!

As usual, additional photos can be found in our gallery...

Big News!

2009-04-01T22:40:00.004-07:00

We're engaged!!!

We spent last weekend in Camp Sherman at my parents cabin. After a morning of snow tubing at Hoodoo, James suggested taking our lunch to the river. We had a nice picnic on some rocks at Canyon Creek Campground. Before we left, James pretended to pose us for a picture of the two of us with the river in the background. After several takes that "weren't quite right" he pressed the button and got down on one knee...

The ring is beautiful!

We're beginning to iron out the details. As we figure them out, we'll post them at www.jamesandkendall.com which has been converted to a wedding blog (the gallery has moved to gallery.jamesandkendall.com).

Alaska

2009-03-07T14:30:00.005-08:00

Continuing on the processing photos I've been neglecting for months train...

Back in October, a fellow OMSI educator and I were sent to Ketchikan, Alaska to do some outreach programs. It was pretty cool to fly somewhere, rather than drive an OMSI van and we had time to explore the area and hike a bit. Those pictures are now in the gallery.

Home Ownership

2009-01-27T20:59:00.007-08:00

So I mentioned before that we had moved. That's because....we bought a house!

this photo courtesy of AMI (the home inspection company we used, because apparently I haven't taken any exterior photos yet)

We'd been toying with the idea of buying a home for a while when last April our apartment complex put us through construction hell and then jacked up the rent the second it was over. That was just the motivation we needed. We started looking at places in mid-June and after deciding between two finalists made an offer in early July. We closed a month later and moved in at the end of August. The house is in a great location and is really a perfect size for us at this point in our lives. The only thing we didn't get is a second full bath, but we do have a half in the master, which helps more than I thought it would. We've also got an amazing yard, so I'm looking forward to gardening in the coming year.

We (well, mostly James) have done a bunch of work on the house and it's still something of a work in progress, but most of the big stuff is done. The biggest project was the floors. We ripped out the flooring in every room except the bathrooms. James installed hardwood in the living room, dining room and hallway and self-stick vinyl tiles in the kitchen. This project became extra big because the underlayment wasn't suitable for hardwood, so he had to rip that up and install new plywood. It was kind of fun seeing the sub floor. We also had new carpet installed in the bedrooms and family room. My big job (with some help from my Mom) was painting. The previous owners had some rather bold color taste. Several of the rooms needed major priming before painting, but the school bus yellow sponge paint is now gone in favor of a much mellower yellow called "Eggnog". The color names are the best part of picking out paint, half of the colors are named after food and the bedroom is now painted with "Liveliness". After several years of apartment living, I love being able to make my walls different colors.

this photo by James Bartholomew

this photo by James Bartholomew

We've still got more to do. James is now working on thresholds (he had to build several custom ones) and baseboards and I've got several doors and cabinets and windowsills left to paint. It's starting to feel finished though, which is nice. My parents got us some living room furniture for Christmas/housewarming, so it's feeling a lot less empty lately (our apartment only had one living area so all of that furniture is in the family room).

Living room (it has curtains now):

Dining room (it also has curtains now):

Kitchen:

this photo by James Bartholomew

Family room:

this photo by James Bartholomew
My Mom made us a valance:

Master bedroom:

The yard we'll be enjoying when it gets warm again (minus the furniture, that didn't come with the house):

this photo by James Bartholomew

Now we just need to hang some things on the walls...

More photos in the gallery and hopefully more to come too!

The Return (Crater Lake Trip)

2009-01-24T17:52:00.007-08:00

Well, it's been over a year since I've posted anything and life's been pretty crazy. Now that things have settled down a bit from the big move (more on that later), I've had a chance to start looking at some of the photos I've been neglecting for months. So I'll start posting again as the accompanying photos make themselves available...

Last July, we took a trip to Crater Lake!

this photo by James Bartholomew

I may have grown up in Oregon, but for whatever reason, I had never been there. It was exciting to finally see it and it really is as beautiful as people say. We overnighted in Camp Sherman to shorten the drive then took 97 down in the morning, stopping at Diamond Lake to claim a campsite. At Crater Lake it was very hazy due to various forest fires, but even with the haze the color of the lake was still amazing. It really it breathtaking.

We were very typical tourists, stopping at almost every place we could pull over.

We weren't able to drive the entire rim, as part of it was still closed due to snow. I think the full rim drive often opens late, but much of the Oregon Cascades got record snowfall in 2008 so things took quite a while to melt. We did go on a hike in a little canyon outside the caldera where we saw some excellent rocks.

The only downside to hiking was that a good chunk of the trail was still under melting snow and mosquitoes apparently really like melting snow.

this photo by James Bartholomew

After sleeping at Diamond Lake (where the mosquitoes followed us), we drove back to Camp Sherman via Fort Rock, which is really cool from a geologist's perspective (a very impressive tuff ring), but also just pretty neat in general.

All in all, a great trip! More photos in the gallery...

GO BEAVS!!!

2007-12-01T18:56:00.000-08:00

It's a great day to be a beaver.

Hmm...I should post more often.

GO BEAVS!!!

2007-06-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

Enough said.

Long Time No Post

2007-05-27T22:06:00.002-07:00

It appears that it's been ages since I've updated this and a lot has happened! For starters, we moved to Portland. We've got a great apartment in the Cedar Mill/Sylvan area. The view is awesome. Not as awesome as it would be if we faced the city, but the lights of Beaverton are still pretty cool and we get some great sunsets. I got a job working at OMSI as an educator in the outreach department, which is pretty much exactly what I wanted to do. It's loads of fun. We teach some awesome classes and get to travel around the area to lots of different schools. I've also spent a lot of time at one of the local Boys & Girls Clubs where OMSI has an outpost of sorts. That's where I'll be for most of the summer and it sounds like I'll also get to travel to some fairs, possibly including one in Wyoming! I'm really enjoying Portland so far. As a testament to its awesomeness, here's the view in my rear view mirror (also the view from a lot of places around here) as I drove back from teaching in Estacada last week. Yes, I was parked at a stop light...

Photo Blog

2007-01-14T13:56:00.000-08:00

I started a new blog...

Kendall E. Adams Photography, the Blog

GO BEAVS!!!!!

2006-12-29T18:13:00.000-08:00

That was quite a game.

GO BEAVERS!!!

2006-10-28T16:25:00.000-07:00

Takin' #3 down a peg or two...

Road Trip Photos

2006-09-29T21:48:00.002-07:00

I finally added the photos of our cross-country drive to the gallery...

Dartmouth Alumni Brainwashing

2006-09-29T11:45:00.000-07:00

I've already received enough propaganda mail from both sides to wallpaper a small room. Now I get my ballot. Right there on the ballot it says "The Association of Alumni Executive Committee recommends a vote FOR Amendment #1". How very democratic.

Camping Photos

2006-09-04T20:29:00.002-07:00

Finally got around to processing them...

The rest are in the gallery.

Scotland

2006-08-15T20:08:00.002-07:00

Scotland was pretty sweet. The house was amazing, much like Seahouse (though Seahouse had the advantage of being a walkable distance from town). Gorgeous views of the ocean and rabbits that would visit the lawn every night.

We saw some of the things we saw last time as well as some new things. Dirleton Castle was still very cool. I love ruins like that.

We also got to see the ruins of Melrose Abbey, which were very cool. Beautiful sandstone masonry and you could still climb the old tower. We also saw Sir Walter Scott's House nearby.

Edinburgh was great and it was nice to get into a city. The only down side was that the Military Tattoo had set up their stadium right in front of Edinburgh Castle, which kind of ruined the facade. The city was particularly busy because the Fringe Festival was going on, so there were a ton of street performers out.

We got to have a private tour of Gosford House with Lady Wemyss, which was really cool. It was really impressive how well she knew the history of the family and the house.

We also saw Scone Palace and spent a day in North Berwick. The whole area was really beautiful.

More photos in our gallery!
Now back to finding a job...

Back in Oregon

2006-07-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it. It took a while, but we're finally on the west coast. James and I will be staying at my parents vacation house in Camp Sherman while we look for jobs. It's really beautiful here and there aren't as many distractions (and expenses) as there would be if we stayed in Hanover. Things are rather exciting here though, as we're fairly close to the Black Crater fire, which has gotten pretty darn big. We have a nice view of the smoke rising over Black Butte.
The view from the backyard:

and from Highway 20:

Migration

2006-07-05T16:47:00.000-07:00

Well, we managed to fit almost everything in our little U-Haul trailer. We had to leave the dishwasher and minifridge behind, along with some bookshelves and other minor furniture...nothing I'll miss greatly. We fit the coffee table in, which was probably the nicest of our furniture. The car seems to handle the trailer alright. It was a little slow going up the hills in Vermont, but otherwise did just fine on the drive to Chicago aside from the reduced gas mileage. We should be leaving Chicago sometime mid or late next week. I think we're aiming to make it to Oregon in roughly four days, but it will probably depend on how the car does. We do have to drive a little slower than we would normally because of the trailer, which makes for some long days, but the two days to Chicago weren't too bad.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

2006-06-26T19:35:00.000-07:00

GO BEAVS!!!!!!!!!

Science Magistrate

2006-06-19T18:08:00.000-07:00

or Master of Science, but the latin makes it sound more like magistrate. In any case, I'm officially graduated. The ceremony was pretty much the same as the last four I've witnessed, but I did get to wear a nifty hood. My parents were in town for the weekend. I haven't seen them since Christmas, so that was nice. It was a fun weekend on the whole. Now, we've just gotten back from five nights of camping in the Green Mountains. Our friend Chris just bought a canoe so we went to a place with canoe-in camp sites. It was really nice. We had a great secluded site right on the water. Photos to come soon.

DONE

2006-06-04T07:22:00.000-07:00

I'm done with school! I turned in my paper for spatial data yesterday, so I'm now finished with both my thesis and my classes. I still have a lot to do, but nothing stressful. I'll just have to help with the grades for the class I'm TAing and help my advisor turn my thesis into a publishable manuscript. I also have to clean out my office and get ready for commencement.

It's Official

2006-05-31T14:39:00.000-07:00

My thesis is turned in. Yay!

Defense

2006-05-28T18:31:00.000-07:00

My defense on Thursday went really well. Public speaking isn't exactly my forte, but since I knew the material really well, I wasn't as nervous as I usually am. My committee seemed pretty impressed and only requested a few minor revisions, which I've already made. As long as my advisor is happy with those, I'm ready to print it. It's due on Thursday in the grad studies office.

Other than that, pretty much all that's left is my project for spatial data, which is to write a fake proposal for a research project. It's loosely based on my thesis research, so the intro material should be easy to write. I mostly just need to figure out what will go in the methods section, since I currently don't have too good of an idea of how to accomplish what I'm proposing. I'm pretty sure it can be done, I just need to work out the specifics of how to get the computer to do what I'm asking of it, which could take some time, but I've got a week. I do have to give a short presentation on it on Tuesday, but it's so short that I wont have to get into the details for that. With the project done, the only other thing I'll have to do is grade the Earth Sciences 1 final exam. Then I can get back to looking for a job...

It's done!

2006-05-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well, in a way. My thesis is officially written and now in the hands of my committee. Next comes the defense. That's on Thursday, so I've got a bit of time to get it together. Just gotta make it good...

Chop Sticks

2006-05-14T12:55:00.000-07:00

are awesome. In a pinch, they can be made from Burger King straws to replace the fork that Wendy's forgot to give you.

DWS Concert - "Are the Stars Out Tonight?"

2006-02-20T18:09:00.000-08:00

The DWS concert was Friday night. It actually went really well...one of our best. Most of the pieces sounded really good and the audience seemed to enjoy it. Our finale of Stars & Stripes forever with the combined brass from WPI went over really well. Here's a shot of the percussion (minus Scott) and Max after the concert and one from rehearsal earlier in the week.

Photos courtesy of Becky Wang

Spring Carnival

2006-02-15T09:13:00.000-08:00

Winter Carnival was last weekend, though it didn't really feel like winter. The only snow to be seen was the snow they trucked in to build the sculpture out of. The sculpture was a little sad. It was supposed to be a D propped up by an olympic torch with calvin and hobbs bobsleding down it, but the only recognizeable part was the D.

While most of the east coast got a foot of snow on Sunday, we only got about a centimeter (which has all melted), so we're still stuck in a wierd winter-spring limbo. Our DWS concert in Worcester got cancelled because of the storm and we didn't even get to enjoy the snow.

ROX Hockey

2006-02-14T17:41:00.000-08:00

photo courtesy of Cynthia Chen

Here's me playing hockey for the Earth Sciences Department team, On the ROX, which I've been captaining. Cynthia's got a bunch of photos of us online here. We lost our co-ed league playoff game last night, thanks to a ringer goalie playing for the other team, but we're still in with our independent league team.

Whew

2006-02-04T08:43:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a crazy week. Classes just seemed to pile up on one another and the extra seminars still aren't helping (though I really liked the candidate we had in this week). We had a tough problem set due for stable isotopes on Monday, then a lab due on Tuesday for stats that was 4 times the usual length. We then had an exam in stats on Wednesday and I did a presentation in stable isotopes Thursday morning. This term is turning out to be a lot of work, but in a way it's kind of nice being busy again.
I finally got some lab work done Thursday and Friday. That's still going well. I just hope I can get enough done that my poster for northeastern GSA will be interesting. I've already got all the background details and I can make a rough statement about my data at this point, but I need more data to back it up. Hopefully I'll get done with the Essex sample I've been working on in the next week or so. It'd be useful to compare some data from another site.
In other news, the weather is still bizarre here. It poured yesterday and washed all the snow away. The people building the sculpture for carnival didn't look too pleased. Walking across the green to get to work is like navigating a giant half frozen half boggy mud puddle. I got a pair of those funky looking Crocs shoes to keep in my office so I can take my shoes off when I get there and stop tracking mud and snow around. They're actually ridiculously comfortable. I now understand why they're so popular.

Job Searches

2006-01-22T14:27:00.000-08:00

Remember how I said job talks were generally the most interesting seminars we get? I was so wrong.
It's not that they're uninteresting. They're just all the same. The first three candidates were all for the geobiology possition, meaning we've had 6 geobiology talks in the past three weeks. It's all starting to run together. Each candidate does slightly different research of course, but the conceptual stuff is all the same. Fortunately, the candidate we hear from tomorrow is for the remote sensing possition, but then it's back to geobiology on Thursday. Regardless, I'll be glad when we're done with this and get back to the normal mixed bag of once a week seminars for spring term.

Varves & Weather

2006-01-22T14:25:00.000-08:00

Here's the class I'm TAing out on a field trip in Lebanon. It's a nice exposure of some of the Lake Hitchcock Varves. What's amazing is that we could get to it and see anything. The weather here has been ridiculous. It was 52 degrees yesterday, not exactly a typical New England winter. It's cooler today (mid 30s) and is supposed to stay that way for a week or so, but all of our snow is gone so things are still pretty bizzare. Hopefully we'll get more tomorrow.

New Term

2006-01-10T15:59:00.000-08:00

Winter term is starting off well. I'm taking two classes, both of which seem decent. Stable Isotope Geochemistry will definitely be interesting as long as I can keep up with the more detailed chemistry. Xiahong's lectures seem interesting and well organized so far and in the second half of the term we'll be discussing papers. Analysis of Environmental Data will definitely be useful. It's basically stats for geology people and I haven't taken a true stats class before, though I've picked up some in other classes. It may not be the most interesting subject, but Eric seems to teach it well. My only complaint is that today's lecture was on the material we'd already had to learn via the reading in order to do the problem set that was due, so it was totally redundant and kind of felt like a waste of time.

Research is also going well. I've gotten through about 70 measurements at this point. I plotted the first 60 to see if the trends we're hopping to see were starting to show up, and though it's a little rough, there's definitely something there. Gary and Erik both agreed after looking at the test plot, so things are looking good. Now I just need more data so I can really discern the trends.

The one downside to the term is that the department is running two job searches concurrently, which means every single week we have at least two seminars. Now, job talks are generally the most interesting seminars we get, so I can't really complain about the content, but it makes for a pretty big time commitment when you're used to just having one hour long seminar per week.

I'm also still playing in the Wind Symphony, which should be fun this term as there's a lot of good music in the program. Usually we don't get many interesting parts in the percussion section, but there's only one or two dull songs for this concert. We also got a new percussionist, so we'll be able to cover a lot more parts on the more complicated pieces.

The best part about the winter term is that it's hockey season! I'm captaining the department intramural team again, and we're playing in two leagues this year so we've got twice as many games. I'll also be playing for the women's team I've played on the past couple years and for the marching band if they need people.

Christmas in Hanover

2005-12-31T16:42:00.000-08:00

James & I had our Christmas yesterday. We opened presents in the morning (he gave me a very pretty necklace) and then Chris came over for dinner. We made a ham since we'd both had turkey on Christmas day. It came with a really yummy glaze.

Now it's New Years Eve and since there doesn't seem to be much going on around town, we ordered pizza (we may be C&As sole source of income over the break, every time we've ordered from there it's arrived in 20 minutes or less) and are about to go bowling. We've got some champagne for midnight...that's about as exciting as it gets in Hanover.

Photos from Christmas Eve Skiing

2005-12-31T16:37:00.000-08:00

Mt. Washington & Big Lake

Three Fingered Jack & Mt. Jefferson

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-25T16:25:00.000-08:00

I'm having a great time visiting Oregon. I spent a fun day in Portland with Mom and got my hair done, I hung out with some old friends the other night and now we're in Camp Sherman enjoying an interesting mix of a foot of old snow on the ground and rain falling from the sky. It was actually really nice yesterday. Dad and I went skiing at Hoodoo in the morning on surprisingly good snow and got some great views of the other mountains (I'll add photos when I get back to Hanover). We had dinner at the lodge over at Black Butte Ranch last night. Very tasty...prime rib and sourdough chocolate cake. Everyone had a good time opening presents this morning and now we're waiting for our turkey to finish cooking. We'll head back to Corvallis tomorrow where I'll hopefully get to see more old friends.

Lab

2005-12-13T15:40:00.000-08:00

I finished getting my lab area set up today, so I should be all ready to start taking measurements tomorrow. It actually worked out really well. Gary isn't working on anything in his "skylab" at them moment, so I've got the place to myself and can put things pretty much anywhere. The only disadvantage to it is that there doesn't appear to be a modern computer in there, so if I want e-mail or music or anything I'll have to bring my laptop. It's better than trying to cram into the main microscope lab with my all my giant samples. I've commandeered the better of the two boom mounted scopes and moved it up there and it's kind of nice having my own little area rather than a bench or something in someone else's lab.

Snow!

2005-12-12T12:58:00.000-08:00

We finally had a real snowstorm the other day. We got something like six inches, which is much better than the dustings we'd been getting. Here's our building a few hours after.

Having actual ground cover really makes it feel much more like winter and it makes the cold a lot more enjoyable than it was without snow.

It's starting to feel like Christmas around here. The town tree looks nice from a distance. It's pretty tall this year. Up close it's a little pathetic though. It was so thin on the bottom that they had to add branches to fill it out.

Christmas Decorating

2005-12-05T20:47:00.000-08:00

We got a Christmas tree on Saturday (my birthday). It's pretty small, since the best place we could find for it is on top of the speaker in the gable, but that makes it rather cute and I think it does look pretty nice. The lights also look really cool from outside on the street.

I also made a wreath for the front door. I got the wreath itself prewired, but I did all the decorating myself. I think it turned out pretty well, and it was a good use for the pinecones that came with the little potted tree we had last year.

St. John

2005-11-29T10:23:00.000-08:00

St. John was awesome. The weather was much better than predicted, sunny almost every day. When we arrived we were taken to the resort by private ferry, complete with rum punch. The hotel was really nice. Our room had a king size bed and these really interesting walls made of a mixture of stones, bricks and sea shells. Part of the grounds included ruins of an old sugar mill, part of which had been converted into one of the restaurants. The food was really good. I'm usually not a big fish eater, but the mahi mahi was amazing.

We spent a lot of time on the beach and saw rays and sea turtles while snorkeling (should hopefully have photos of them soon)! We also saw rays jumping out of the water at sunset, which I've never seen before. It was pretty impressive. You don't really expect to see them jump.

The hotel had seven different beaches, which all seemed pretty nice, though we only spent a lot of time on two of them. They had a guy to bring you drinks and these really comfy rafts to float on.

this photo by James Bartholomew

On Sunday we rented a jeep and drove around the island. We went to the big sugar mill ruins that are maintained by the Park Service (most of St. John is a National Park) which were even more impressive than the ones at the resort.

We also drove up into the mountains. We didn't make it quite to the top, but we still got a pretty good view.

Traveling home on Monday was a little drawn out, mostly because the resort's ferry schedule didn't work in our favor. We spent a few hours sitting around at the St. Thomas airport, though it did at least give us time to do a little shopping at the airport. James found the hawaiian shirt he was looking for and we got some of the local rum in the duty free shop to bring back.

this photo by James Bartholomew

Overall it was a great trip. It certainly beats the cold wet weather here in Hanover. At least it's supposed to snow on Friday...that should make the cold a little more tolerable.

More Fieldwork & Bon Voyage

2005-11-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

Spent yesterday in Keeseville, NY doing fieldwork with Gary. We found a great site with probably the tallest continuous exposed section we've seen so far. That hopefully means I'm done with fieldwork for the timebeing. We might do a little more work in the spring if it appears the analysis would benifit from more data, but I've got 4 sites now that provide good coverage of the Champlain Valley arm of the sea, plus an additional outlier up near Ottawa.

Now James and I are off to St. John in the morning. My Grandmother is taking the whole family for the long holiday weekend. I'm looking forward to the warm weather. Even if it does rain as predicted it'll be a nice change from here (we'll be driving to the airport in a sleety snowstorm). The resort is supposed to be really nice and I've read you can see turtles while snorkeling!

Civil War

2005-11-19T19:46:00.000-08:00

Ouch...FSN didn't even show the end.

Nikon is Awesome

2005-11-18T18:05:00.000-08:00

I'm very impressed with Nikon customer service. One of my batteries was subject to their current recall. I opted for the send it back before they send the new one option since I didn't feel like giving them my credit card number. I figured I wouldn't see the new one for weeks, but it's here, only eight days later. I was already planning on not having it (one of three) in St. John, but now I can probably get away with not bringing the charger. And not only were they speedy, but they paid all the shipping and replaced it with a better model battery, so for the price of a small padded envelope I've now got a longer lasting battery than I did before. I really can't complain.

2005-11-17T17:43:00.000-08:00

Here's a shot from my recent fieldwork trip to Plattsburgh. Not bad for a view from a McDonald's parking lot.

Football

2005-11-13T13:53:00.000-08:00

Man...more losses all around. We expect this sort of thing from Dartmouth, particularly when playing the team with the best record in the league, but it's rather depressing seeing the Beavers throw away their bowl chances. They totally could have had that game. What happened? I suppose it does make the civil war a little more interesting, gives them even more incentive to win. Who knows, maybe they'll get everyone healthy again and take out the ducks. It'd be nice to see them in the postseason

Wind Symphony

2005-11-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

The concert tonight went fairly well. There were a few bad spots, but most didn't stand out too much (and the percussion was pretty solid. Now I have my Tuesday and Wednesday evenings free until January! What will I do?

I also got my hair cut today. Nothing special, just a trim, but it looks much better now that it's even.

Dress Rehearsal

2005-11-07T19:53:00.000-08:00

Tonight was the dress rehearsal for the DWS concert. Pretty standard for the most part, but it was pretty cool to finally hear the finale piece in the auditorium with the antiphonal brass...very powerful. The concert's tomorrow night.

Plattsburg

2005-11-05T08:52:00.000-08:00

More fieldwork yesterday. I went to Plattsburg, NY to check out some potential sites and found one that was decent. I got at least 2 good samples out of it, which brings me up to 4 sites sampled--getting toward a decent number I think, so hopefully I can wrap it up in the next week or so by adding a site in the Port Kent area and maybe another farther south.

In other news, James has "walking pneumonia" according to the doctor he saw. He's still coughing a lot, but is finally on antibiotics so hopefully he'll be better soon (and I wont get it from him).

Football & Illnesses

2005-10-30T11:40:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was not the best day for football. The Beavers really should have had that one and Dartmouth, well, no one seems to be all that sure what they should be capable of, but it's still disappointing. In other news, everyone's sick here. James got the flu from a coworker and I've either got a milder version of that or something else entirely. Fun, fun, fun.

DCMB Alumni Google Group

2005-10-26T09:23:00.000-07:00

The google group I created for band alumni is finally up and running. If you're a band alum, you can access it here:
DCMB Alumni

Wynton Marsalis & Co.

2005-10-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

Great concert. Wynton Marsalis was excellent as expected, but his combo was also excellent...much more than a backup band. The pianist was amazing and the drummer was really versatile...he did a lot melodically with his set, which was really interesting, and used the rims and hardware a lot for some funky rhythms. Very cool.

It's snowing!

2005-10-25T11:41:00.000-07:00

It's even sticking a bit in a few places.

Homecoming wrap-up

2005-10-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

So homecoming was pretty sweet. Townie brought enough of his pipeband drums for the entire snare line, so we sounded awesome, plus they're much easier to carry than the DCMB ones. Gotta love backbars on harnesses. It was fun seeing everyone. In addition to all the band stuff, we had a bunch of folks over Friday night before 80s and I went out to dinner with a small crowd Saturday night. I hung out a bit with Oliver on Sunday and went to the alumni association meeting. I'm not sure I've ever seen so many old men in one room before. It's kindof sad how few young alumni participate in stuff like that. Anyway, all in all it was a pretty decent homecoming, though it's pretty hard to complain when we actually win the football game. The new coach seems to be doing a good job. Even though this is only the second game they've won, his approach to it seems right. He does a lot of little things that really make it seem like he cares, like having the team sing the alma mater after wins...that's pretty cool. And, not that I know all that much about football, but the game decisions seem to be much better than last year. Even if they aren't winning every game, they're trying a lot of things that have the potential to work rather than just making moronic decisions on every play. Hopefully they'll continue to improve.

this photo courtesy of Kim Pelak

Alas

2005-10-22T19:40:00.000-07:00

Sadly the Beavs were not quite as successful as Dartmouth...oh well, next time. I suppose it was a somewhat decent showing considering their opponent, but disappointing none the less.

hmm...

2005-10-22T15:32:00.000-07:00

Blogger seems to be having issues. I've been trying to fix my last two posts, which should both have titles and the one about field work is from 2 days ago, but it wont let me republish. It just gets stuck on 0%...boo.

Dartmouth 17, Columbia 6

2005-10-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

Go team!

Sand & Fire

2005-10-20T19:47:00.003-07:00

More fieldwork today. I checked out a site in Highgate, VT. It wasn't the best site, but may still be worthwhile so I got a couple samples. I've got a bunch of brightly colored safety gear since it's hunting season, so now I look like a construction worker while I spray wierd substances on sand. At least no one was around today...the site was in what you might call an ATV playground. It would have been interesting trying to get samples with 4-wheelers driving around, but fortunately the place was empty. Tomorrow we've got a Rox 1 grading session (the students just had a midterm) and then it's homecoming! Should be fun (well, the homecoming part, not so much the grading part). Hooray for bonfires!

Homecoming

2005-10-17T07:51:00.000-07:00

Homecoming is this weekend...should be fun seeing everyone and all, but can we top this?

photo courtesy of Melissa Leaver-McGee/The Dartmouth College Marching Band

hmm...

2005-10-17T07:47:00.000-07:00

Where did my photos go?

Fieldwork

2005-10-15T18:53:00.000-07:00

photo by Gary Johnson

I spent a good chunk of this week doing fieldwork in Ontario and upstate New York. The rain made it less productive than it might have been, but we did get a second site sampled. Our sampling method involves spraying adhesive on the sand and then backing it with a board treated with spray foam. This creates a "peel" of the face we carved in the sand, allowing me to look at the stratification back in the lab.

The Deal

2005-10-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

I decided I need a journal of some sort and a blog seemed like a good way to do it, so here it is...