Grandma's 90th Birthday

Happy Birthday Grandma!

I spent this past weekend visiting my family to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. Most of her family of 2 kids, 4 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren were around High Pines resort on Bad Medicine Lake in northern Minnesota for the big party on Sunday afternoon. We had an open house at my parent's newly finished lake cabin to help Grandma celebrate along with about 70 of her friends. She had a fabulous time. Below is a video of Grandma talking about first coming up to the lake in 1947. The sound is very quiet in the video, so turn up your speakers. Sorry, I didn't take too many videos during the party - none of Grandma with her sister or myself!

Seven Years

Hedgehog Guy and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary on Monday. Hedgehog Guy mentioned that he feels that our time in our apartment in Maryland was a "long time ago", and then he realizes we were already married then! We had a nice dinner at a Greek restaurant on Main St. called "The Main". No live music on Mondays, but it was relaxing. We then retired to the house for some internet video and TV show watching. This is an old picture from our last Thanksgiving in the house in Delaware, but you get the idea.


It has been super hot here the last week (above 90oF, 30-35oC), and we don't have air conditioning! Another great thing about Vancouver?

Strait of Georgia, BC

At the end of June my lab group spent a week on the Canadian Coast Guard Vessel the Vector sailing up the west coast of Canada in the Strait of Georgia. I worked really, really hard - something like four 18 hour days in a row interspersed with heavy lifting and rain showers. But the scenery was fabulous. Nothing like the East Coast where I am used to cruisin'. I have a ton of video to grab snapshots from, but thought I would share these photos from my boss's Facebook page first.

Me working on the flow cytometer and then the lab group in front of a waterfall in one of the fjords.

Happy Birthday!

Hedgehog Guy is 29 today! We'll be enjoying a steak dinner at home to celebrate. I'll try to put up a picture of his cake this evening - if the cake is as good as the batter was last night, we are going to die.

Tomorrow I leave for a 4 day sampling trip to Pavilion Lake, British Columbia. A day of driving on each end of 2 days of field work with my lab manager and her son. I really hope it is lots of fun. Two astronauts should be there at the same time to practice flying the ROV submersibles!

Quick update

So very busy getting ready for field season in the lab. Always seems we oceanographers prefer to go out when the weather is nicest! But I have been thinking that I have acquired some unexpected skills so far in life. Below are 5 of my most un-looked for, yet most handy skills :

1. I can plumb almost anything given some tubing (any size) and a couple zip ties. Hedgehog Guy and I once plumbed our overflowing toilet to the sump pump during a flood using a brick, a beach towel, and a garden hose.
2. I can pack efficiently. Our whole lives in 9ft of trailer space going across the country and not a single dish, glass, picture, or piece of china broke.
3. I can make amazing towers of drying dishes. Seriously.
4. I can select the perfect-size container for left-overs. Saves on dishes.
5. I know how most office furniture is put together and can fix or repair it. Thanks Dad!

What are your most unlikely skills?

Back on the Bus!

Hedgehog Guy is away at his departmental retreat today with the Prius. So I got to ride the bus!  The weather is surreally beautiful, so the walk is pleasant and scenery is green.  It felt sooo good to be back on the bus.  But I do miss Hedgehog Guy's company...

His absence has been felt in other ways.  In a 5 minute span while trying to make dinner, I had to (try to) kill two spiders, and I grated my knuckle (for the 3rd time in 3 weeks) into the pizza cheese.  The spiders' appearance elicted a very girlish scream while the grating brought a very un-girlish curse.  I think I am going to have to turn cheese grating, like frying bacon and grilling hamburgers, over to Hedgehog Guy.  

Tomorrow (June 9) is the date set for my good friend Bernadette's baby to be induced.  Wish her and her family luck!  I know I shall be thinking of them.

Birthday!

Ugh, I am not very good at blogging. I often work on the computer all day, and then turning it on for fun at home just doesn't seem like fun.

Regardless, I came one year closer to being grown up (whatever that is) last Friday. I have been feeling pretty old lately - lots of grey hairs, can't lift full 50L carboys on my own anymore, the new fashions in the stores repulse me (the 80's died for a reason...), and the "kids" on campus really seem like kids. Hedgehog Guy took me shoe shopping (bless him) and out to a wonderful dinner on the shore during my birthday weekend. Just what I wanted.

I am not big on birthday parties. But the other post-doc in the lab had his birthday a couple days before mine, so he had the labbies over for a party the night of my birthday. I was not too sure about going, but we had a great time (we are so anti-social!). Below is video of the cake that Jessica graciouly made for me and a video of Renat and I's cake serenade. My cake has a virus on it (lol) and the name Heather Summers. This is an allusion to the fact that I'm almost the exact opposite of a former post-doc in the lab whose name was Christian Winter. So the opposite of his name would be Heathen Summer... You get the point. Hope this year finds everyone with many happy returns on their birthdays - especially Hedgehog Guy's sister who shares my birthday!