Danielle Blog

Spring break vacation in TX!

Hi!

A lot has happened since the last time I posted. I’ve been in TX for a week for Spring Break/vacation. This is the one perk to working in education. I’m “forced” to take time off for myself. And while I’m at it, I’ve realized that it is good for me to get away completely so that I don’t feel guilty about not using the time to grade exams/homework or prepare lectures.

I’ve really needed this break!

I’ve had tons of fun with Texas Seestor, Trainwreck, and my two nieces – Munchie (the 3-year old) and Snuggly (the 3-month old)! There are lots and lots of photos on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/danied/

So many that I can’t begin to sort through them and find ones to post here. I wake up early (a habit from getting up to drive so far to school), but there is only about 45 min or so where I can really be on my computer before my nieces get up (if that).

This morning, I had to spend the time packing, because I head back to the Arctic Hinterland today. Honestly, it is really mild there today. But after having 70F weather here, even something as warm as 37F is going to feel cold.

BUT it won’t be long and I’ll be here!

While I was here, I scoped out apartments. Texas Seestor drove me around, Snuggly silently slept the whole time, which was fantastic. And I found 2 really good candidates that have garages. After seeing some with garages, I realized that I’d like to have the extra space for all of my stuff like bicycle, tools, and general storage of things that can withstand the summer heat.

ope! I heard a door upstairs. That usually means that Texas Seestor or Trainwreck are getting Munchie out of bed! Since I leave at 9:30 am today, I need to maximize my time with them!

Check out Flickr!

Remembering US National’s 2008 – Men’s Figure Skating

I finally had time to watch the men’s figure skating for the 2010 Olympics last night.

I was reminded of getting to see the 2008 US National’s in St. Paul, MN. The men who represented the US in the Olympics this year are all skaters whom I was able to see that year.

I have a handful of photos of them. My camera was running out of battery power by the end of the finals, and I had to keep flipping it on and off. Plus, I was trying to not get too caught up in taking photos. I wanted to actually enjoy their fabulous skating.

I only have a couple of images of Evan Lysacek actually skating. Of course he is this year’s Olympic champion (gold medal winner). He won Nationals in 2008 too.
I have more photos of Johnny Weir skating. He actually tied Lysacek in total points that year, but the tie-breaker was their standing in the free skate program, and Lysacek won that portion.

They have come a long way since 2008. Lysacek in particular is just an amazing, amazing athlete. I’m so glad he won gold this year!

Here are a couple shots I was able to take of Evan Lysacek.

Of course, the advantage of having a camera with a really fast shutter speed is that I was actually able to get photos of them jumping. But they spin so fast, and I hadn’t figured out how to use my “sport” setting, that they are still a tiny bit blurry.

Here are some photos of Johnny Weir.

Three cheers for figure skating!

Job interviews done

As the title suggests, my on-campus job interviews for actual tenure-track biology faculty positions are now done.

I can breathe a sigh of relief (sort of). I say sort of, because now I have to wait on their decisions.

I interviewed at 2 small liberal arts schools in TX, because I really really want to move down there to be closer to Texas Seestor, Trainwreck and my two nieces. Also, Mom and Dad are retiring there this summer. I’m ready to live closer than a plane flight away.

I also interviewed at my current school. I just did that on Tuesday, and it was my last one.

They are all having their meetings this coming week to make a decision. I may know about one of them as early as Monday/Tuesday. Of course, that is the one that I will likely turn down. They just don’t have what I need to do summer research, and if I’m being honest with myself, I would rather continue to adjunct at my current school and/or wait on a different school in TX than go there. My current school will be hiring again, because there is another faculty member retiring at Christmas of the 2010-2011 school year.

I really really like the one school in TX, BUT the school I’m at is offering start-up money for research! And this would be at least double or triple what I got to start my research last summer. They actually offered the chemistry hire 10 times what I managed to use to get my research started last year!
I’d love to get an offer at both schools and get the TX school to match my offer at my current school….
…. that would be an ideal situation.

I guess we’ll see.

So, now I’m trying to catch up on everything that got put on hold since the time that i started applying back before Thanksgiving. I had those 2 weeks off in TX over break, but I didn’t do any of the home stuff that I need to take care of.
For example, I’m planning on taking down and sorting the Christmas decorations today!
I told two profs at school and their comments were something to the effect that there is still snow on the ground (as will be the case until April or so), which means that I’m all good for a while yet.

This brought up the other prof who has been at the school for 20+ years to comment that one year for graduation (late May) he remembers there being a spot of lawn that still had snow on it. Granted, it was in a shady spot…
… He also had an interesting factoid that since MN has been keeping records, there has been snowfall in every single month of the year – except for ONE. We assume it is July, but we aren’t entirely certain.

yeah.

And people wonder why I’d want to leave a great job like the one I have currently…

How could I resist sharing these?

This is my wee niece at approximately 1 week old. She is being held by my mom (Grandma) and Texas Seestor (her mom), respectively.

I get to see all of them in less than a week!

Last Sunday in Advent

Hello!

I haven’t been writing much, because it seems like no one is really around. But I did have an email from a friend who has read some of my blog in order to keep up on things. So, I suppose it is worth a bit of an update.

As you have guessed, I call Texas Seestor pretty much everyday to see how everyone is doing in their household. TS’s blood pressure shot up the other day, so she is now on BP medication, but this is far better than when she gave birth to my first niece. So, it is great that she is doing better in that sense.
Baby niece – still no nickname – although my mom suggested Squeaky – is doing well. She eats a lot (to be expected) and is slowly getting her sleep schedule flipped around from being nocturnal to being more awake during the day.
Older niece – I suppose she needs a new nickname too! – hasn’t shown a whole lot of interest in her younger sister. She has always been pretty scared of small things that are animated. She was scared of the Elmo that giggles and moves and the same with a doll. So, she is still pretty cautious of her sister.

In news about me, we had a decent practice for the Christmas Eve special music duet with solo section on Wed night. The guitarist and keyboardist who played with us for the first practice cannot be at the Christmas Eve service (to my knowledge), so on Wed night, new people had to learn their parts. I am assuming it will come together. I know that our vocals sound good.
The only thing that is a little worrisome is that I woke up with a sore throat/cold this morning! eek!
I’ve been sneezing a lot since Friday, so I’m praying it will pass and that I can participate to the full extent at the services. I’m part of a quartet that is going to sing some carols before the services too. AND I am part of the usual group up front leading service for the last 2 of the 3 services which are my favorite – the candlelight ones.

*big breath*

So, my voice has to be up to par!

Otherwise, I’m doing a lot of grading. I finished all of my shopping for presents that have had to be shipped. Now I just have a few easy things to pick up for family where I will hand them their gifts.
I’m grading finals all day today. I’m (obviously) avoiding doing them right now. They shouldn’t be too bad once I get started. I just have a bit of a mental block about doing them, unfortunately.

I have been to two choir concerts in a fantastic church in downtown Mnpls. One of them was by all of the choirs at our school, which was just fantastic!

Tonight, I attend the concert of a woman and her sisters who have formed a band called Redpath. The lead singer, Lauren Redpath was the worship leader at our church for a while. We stupidly didn’t hire her permanently, because people thought that she didn’t have enough experience in working with instrumentalists. She also didn’t bring in any new songs while she was with us. BUT her voice is so outstanding, it is a real shame, in retrospect. However, the church that she is at now is huge, and she is obviously getting more exposure.
I like to think that this is all part of God’s plan for her and her sisters.

I think it will be a great concert since it was so terrific last year – and that was when she and her sisters were just starting to form their group. So, they ought to be even better now!

I’ll tell you more about it once I go.

For now, I suppose that I need to get some grading done before I go to church. I’m looking forward to church. We’ve been singing all of the traditional christmas songs this Advent. And the children’s messages for the lighting of the Advent candles have been particularly good this season. Finally, the sermons have been spot on too!

Okay. Now I really am going to go. See you!

New baby niece!

She is here!

Texas Seestor and Trainwreck went to the hospital yesterday morning when TS’s water broke. And come to find out, this was the real deal!

My new niece was born last night and ended up only being 1 day premature (full term was today). So, all of that boring bed rest paid off.

She was 7 lb 6 oz and 19 inches long when born.

I hear that everyone is doing well. But I haven’t actually gotten to hear much in the way of details now that she has been around and kicking for part of a day.

I guess she was just a little bigger than Texas Baby Bunny/Munchie when she was born.

Can you see the differences between their photos?

I think that my new baby niece (haven’t come up with a good blog name yet) has slightly different lips. Her nose might be different too. But since baby noses get sort of smushed when they are born, it is hard to say for certain until it has a chance to sort of bounce back.

Here is one funny little thing. So, I was at this Christmas concert when TS gave birth, and the music was all about the birth of Christ, Mary giving birth to the son of God, celebrate the birth, etc. etc.
And here TS was, giving birth.

Maybe all of those good vibes were doing the trick.

I can’t wait to see everyone!

I’m an Auntie twice over!

92 years

I hadn’t realized it had been quite so long since I posted until today.

There are 2 main things that have happened this month.

1) I put in my application for a tenure-track position at school.
This actually took a lot of time. But, I think that my final application was really good.

2) My Grandma died a week and a half ago on Veteran’s day. She had just turned 92.
It was expected, in that she had a form of dementia and a movement disorder and has been progressively getting worse. But at the same time, it is sad to know that her life on this earth is over and she cannot be with us, physically, anymore.

I flew back to Indiana last weekend to be with everyone. It was for me, as well as for them. I needed that time to experience the formalities of the visitation, funeral, and burial ceremonies. And I needed the joy of seeing family members whom I haven’t seen since some of them showed up in TX for Texas seestor’s wedding (4? years ago) and more like 5 for others who didn’t fly down for the wedding.

I also used the time to catch up on some geneology. No one has any family tree info. But I was able to get some based on headstones, old copies of obituaries, and the recollections of some of my older and more distant relatives. I took a bunch of photos of gorgeous black and white photos of family members (great grandparents). We even have some wedding photos from Germany (late 1800’s), but some are unmarked, so we don’t know the identities of the people.

I hope to communicate with a couple of other people in the family who have evidently spent some time collecting information.

One other thing that was fun was that my mom and two of her sisters shared stories about life on the farm. Some of the stories were even surprises to them!

Well, I guess that is all for now. We have a couple of weeks and then we have finals. So, this is sort of a crazy time of the academic year!

One final note: Texas Seestor will be giving birth within the next ____ weeks. (4?) She is on bed rest right now, so keep her in your thoughts and prayers! And keep trainwreck in your prayers too!

Update on bout with H1N1

I thought I’d give a short (I hope) update on my health status, in case any of you were curious.

This week was a bit hit and miss. One night – it must have been Tuesday, I was working until 1:00 am and had to get up at 5:00 am. That Wednesday when lecturing, I felt short of breath and constricted/achy. I took my inhaler and it helped some, but it also made my heart race (side effect), which is, of course, a disturbing feeling too.

Anyway, I had a couple of moments in lecture where I really had trouble catching my breath. Then I had to go to lab until 5:30. Needless to say, it was a sucky day. I went home and pretty much fell asleep right after supper. So, Thursday I felt great. But again, I hadn’t prepared on Thursday for stuff due on Friday, so I was up until midnight again and was super exhausted yesterday – Friday.

I also had this terrible moment one minute before my lecture started on Friday when I realized that I wasn’t prepared – I was missing part of my lecture prep – which I had not done. I was mis-remembering on Thursday/Friday morning and thought that I’d done it, and never double-checked. So, I had to plead sickness for my lapse in memory and prep, and sort of wing it in lecture. This is the first (and I hope last) time this has/will happen.

In other news, I’m pretty much done taking all drugs except some Mucinex DM. But I think I’ll be stopping that too pretty soon.

Now, I just have to get caught up so that I end these nights of working until midnight!

I hope you are healthy.

Oh, and I found out from a math prof who is doing a class in bioinformatics that one person in Canada has been found to have a mutated version of H1N1 that is resistant to Tamiflu! The sequence has been entered into a genomics database. I hope this mutated form of H1N1 it stays in Canada and/or doesn’t spread! Scary news, I think.

What H1N1 means to me…

Do you remember how in elementary school you’d be asked to write essays like “What freedom means to me….” or “What liberty means to me….” or independence, or something else?

Well, now that I’m on the upswing (I hope!), of the H1N1, bronchitis, conjuctivitis (pink eye) bout, I can look at it with a bit of humor.

I was cleaning up the countertops yesterday with bleach wipes (again), and was shuffling around my various boxes and bottles of over-the-counter and prescription medications and stuff. I realized how it looked…
…. what is the word I’m looking for?…

…striking?…
… unbelievable?…
… goofy?…
…crazy?…

I don’t know exactly what I’m searching for. But regardless, I decided that I needed to take a photo of it.

Short update:
I thought I was better as of Monday. On Tuesday I had a large weight on my chest and felt like my breathing was constricted. After MUCH time at Urgent Care (again), they concluded that I was NOT having a heart attack (I didn’t think so, but better to be safe than sorry), and that my bronchials had constricted.
Got an inhaler. Had a slight allergic reaction to the inhaler. Took steroids. Tried inhaler again. After a day, had some odd throat tightness/feeling. Went to primary care doctor. Got a different inhaler. Maybe the throat feeling is acid reflux? Bought a bunch of Zantac.

Which, by the way, is a histamine receptor blocker AND will help with my skin allergies, because approx 10-15% of your histamine receptors are on your skin! Cool beans.

The good news is that my lungs are super clear; I just have to deal with my odd bronchial situation.

Took 3 days off of work. Had to find people to cover my lab (easy) and lecture (harder).
Slept a lot.

This isn’t so short, is it?

Well, you know me. I’m a bit of a rambler (I write, as I cough).

I am calling myself a walking example of why you should get an H1N1 vaccine. No, I wasn’t on death’s door, but it sure really wiped me out.

I hope you are healthy!

unbelievable

I’m still trying to work out just how this is possible….

!

Yes, I took these photos TODAY. Today being OCTOBER 10th!

?

snow?

SNOW?

yes….

snoooooooooooow.

One last thing: It is Mom’s birthday today! It is one of those milestone birthdays. The one that means retirement is just around the corner!

Happy Birthday, Mom!