Posted by barb on Dec 25, 2005 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts We spent another quiet day in Hemmingford today. After sleeping in late, Andrew and I walked around his parents’ yard. They live on an old horse farm and have about 5 acres, so we walked around and played with taking pictures of the snowy landscape. Then I made Andrew help me with a snowman:
After kicking around the house for a while, we popped over to Auntie’s house to visit with her, Uncle, Maggie, and Bob. Auntie gave Andrew and I a tour around her place, pointing out some of her favorite odds ‘n’ ends. She has a vast collection of dresses, along with treasures from every corner of the world. It’s a lot of fun to tour her place.
I also heard from Dad today. They sent him home from the hospital this morning, and he was able to make it to Christmas-morning church service. The doctor had told him that it was okay, and that he liked to get patients back to their normal schedule as soon as possible. He needs to watch his activity, but should be taking 10-15 minute walks every day. It was good to hear from him.
Tags: christmas, trip report
Posted by barb on Dec 24, 2005 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts Andrew and I arrived in Montreal yesterday without any incident – all of our luggage even arrived (which, if you know me, is a bit of a triumph). Despite Andrew’s mom’s worries, I was able to drive to Hemmingford with no trouble, though the directions we got from Yahoo were a bit odd (Andrew didn’t recognize bits of the ride, which we later discovered was because we took a totally different way from his parents). We spent a quiet evening with his parents.
After sleeping in this morning, we headed off to a mall on the South Shore, where Andrew bought me another Christmas present – dolphin slippers. The main point of our trip was to get Andrew a new pair of boots, and we were successful on that point. The mall was busy, but we were able to navigate it without too much trouble.
When we returned to his parent’s house, I had expected a message from my parents – they were going to call sometime Christmas Eve. But there was no message. Andrew and his mom got busy making Christmas Eve dinner, and I settled in the living room to work on Sudoku.
Finally, after dinner, a call came from my mom. Dad was in the hospital. He’d had a heart attack yesterday. He’s doing fine now – they put in two more stents and he needs to stay home from work for a week or two. But, they’re probably going to send him home tomorow morning. The whole family – my brothers and their families, mom, and grandma – all went to the hospital this morning with all of the Christmas gifts and celebrated in Dad’s hospital room. Then they all had dinner in the hospital cafeteria (except Dad, who had his Christmas Eve dinner in his room alone).
As if that wasn’t enough, Mom passed the phone on to my brother, Kevin. He was staying at my parents’ house for a little while because he found out yesterday that his live-in girlfriend had been cheating on him. She had profiles up on Match.com and SingleMoms.com. Yup. She and her two kids had been living at Kevin’s house for about a year (I can’t remember exactly how long), and she had singles profiles up. Lovely. So, Kevin left the house, and told her to move out.
After talking with everyone else at Mom’s house, I spent a quiet evening with Andrew’s parents tonight. I’ve been fighting back tears – there’s nothing like a family emergency to remind us how fragile life can be. I have a feeling I’ll have a good cry in bed tonight. I wish I were home to be with the family.
Tags: christmas, family, trip report
Posted by barb on Nov 6, 2005 in
Pictures,
Travels Despite tired legs from walking all around Cambridge yesterday, Andrew and I headed off on foot this morning across the Charles River and into Boston. Our first goal was Quincy Market, and from there we went to the New England Aquarium.
At the aquarium we decided to take in an IMAX show, too – Sharks 3D. I’ve been going to IMAX shows since I was in third grade. My family bought and maintained a membership to the Minnesota Science Museum from that time, so that we saw every IMAX film that came through the museum. Twenty years ago, IMAX films were few (at one time, our museum had already shown something like 20 of the available 25 films). Even 10 years ago, there weren’t that many IMAX films, and they were still generally educational. Sure, the filmmakers would use the unique medium to its fullest – zooming in on a landscape, following beavers through a lake into their den – but the films largely told a documentary-like story. What I’ve noticed lately, though, is that the IMAX films, while still marginally educational, focus more on just showing pretty pictures than on telling a good, consistent story. Sharks exemplifies this new trend. We got lots of cool footage of sharks, as a friendly sea turtle gave a tour of his neighbors. The turtle started out by telling us that he wanted to show us that sharks aren’t just mindless killers in the sea, but then when we saw the footage of the great white shark the music might as well have been the Emperor’s theme from Star Wars.
< getting off the soapbox >
From the aquarium, we grabbed a quick lunch at Qunicy Market, and then walked to the old City Hall and meandered through two of the old burying grounds.
Another tiring day with lots and lots of walking, but also a lot of fun.
By the way, be sure to check out Andrew’s pictures, too – Andrew’s Cambridge/Boston Flickr Set
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Nov 5, 2005 in
Pictures,
Travels 
With the conference behind me, Andrew and I have a full weekend to play in Boston and Cambridge. Today we walked to Harvard to check out the Natural History Museum (and Peabody Musuem, which are both in the same builing). We walked through campus to get to the museums (that’s Memorial Hall in the picture – Felicia’s there, too, if you look very closely).
The Natural History Museum had a nice collection of minerals and the requisite room of stuffed animals and skeletons. There was also a room full of glass flower models. A fun surprise was the Day of the Dead displays in the Peabody Museum.
After that we walked to the MIT Museum. There was a fun exhibit of kinetic sculptures by Arthur Ganson (very hard to get a good picture of, though, given that the museum doesn’t allow flash photography). There was also an exhibit on Harold Edgerton on his work creating pictures of fast processes (like the milk drop pictures, and pictures of cats lapping water, etc.). Definately a fun museum for the nerds in the family.
I’ll post all my pictures later – I’ve got some of them up on my Flickr “Boston Pics” set
Tags: museums, trip report
Posted by barb on Nov 4, 2005 in
Pictures,
Travels We went to the conference banquet last night, held at the Boston Museum of Science. It was pretty cool, because we had the museum to ourselves, so we could really see most of the exhibits with a minimum of children (the local participants brought their children, but there weren’t too many of them). We also got to go through the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit. I’ve made a Boston Pics set on Flickr. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Nov 1, 2005 in
Pictures I have a great view from my hotel room – here’s the Boston skyline this evening:
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Sep 17, 2005 in
Pictures,
Travels
I went with a group from the conference for a tour of Kitt Peak National Observatory. They gave us scientist-led tours of the Mayall 4-meter telescope, the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope, and the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope. Wow!
Update (9/20): I’ve posted all of my Kitt Peak pictures in my photo album.
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Sep 17, 2005 in
Travels I’ve posted the rest of my pictures from the Desert Museum. They aren’t linked from my photo album yet, but I’ll add a link after I get back home.
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Sep 16, 2005 in
Pictures,
Travels I played hookey from the first couple sessions today and ran off to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum just a few miles outside of Tucson. Wow! Best $9 I’ve spent in a very long time. The museum is part science museum part zoo part botany lesson. It’s situated smack in the middle of the desert, and it seems that the designers of the museum tried to disturb that desert as little as possible. The trails are lined with native cacti, many of which were flowering or with fruit today. There are several live-animal exhibits — from a river otter to a black bear to praire dogs to ocelots. There are also two aviaries – one with a variety of birds and another with hummingbirds. Winnie and I spent about three hours at the museum, and were able to see much of it, though we missed the “Desert Loop Trail” with the coyotes and javelinas. I highly recommend this museum if you ever find yourself in this neck of the United States.
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Sep 15, 2005 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts
Tags: trip report
