Winter Weather

It has been pretty cold here lately!  Why, today I don't think the temperature rose above freezing.  I excitedly wore several layers of clothes today.

It doesn't get quite this cold that often here in Tennessee.  The weather (although not the complete lack of snow) reminds me of my days in Illinois.

Speaking of Illinois, when I told Vinny that one of his cousins lives in Illinois, he suggested that his cousin actually lives in "Billinois" and just laughed like it was the most hilarious thing ever.  Then I suggested that Vinny lived in "Sillynois" and laughed a bit myself (although Vinny did not find that as humorous as his own joke).  I am still trying to figure out the four-year-old sense of humor.  So far it seems to me that watching him laugh is about the funniest part of his jokes.

Oh, Hi!

I've been a little bit busy lately!  So busy that I failed to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of my beloved son (that was October 5), or discuss the family party that we held for him, or talk about the student who started working with me at the beginning of the month, or the vacation I've taken for the past week.  I'll try to remedy that right now:

• I can hardly believe that Vinny is 4.  He is such an amazing little boy and I am so glad he came into my life four years ago.  Every day I love him more and more, as if that is even possible.
• Since his birthday was on a Tuesday, we held a family celebration the Sunday before, just the three of us.  Vinny's aunt and cousin had a little online video chat with him for his birthday.  We ate homemade pizza and a Dora the Explorer cake for his birthday dinner (more on that cake later).  He got lots of great presents, including a remote controlled car; Lego Rock Band plus a guitar, drum set, and microphone for the game; and a fun set of gears that you can put together on interlocking backing.  He was positively thrilled with the whole thing.
• He had requested a Dora cake for his birthday.  I said okay, I would make him a Dora cake.  Jeff bought a Dora cake pan and I baked the cake.  That was the easy part.  The hard part was decorating it.  You need 10 different colors for decorating Dora.  For example, she has light brown eyes, but dark brown hair.  Furthermore, she has the whites of her eyes, the light brown iris, the black pupil, and a little dot of white in her eyes.  She also has a bracelet that has light blue, dark blue, and yellow beads in it.  Luckily I bought some sort of frosting mix that was probably actually some amalgam of petrochemicals.  I mixed up all the ten different colors of frosting in ten different bowls, but I was having a lot of trouble with doing everything I had to do to follow the directions.  I had to change out frosting colors, which was an arduous process, especially because I had only one tip of each kind that was required.  A lot of times I just had to do one or two little tiny things and then I had to move on to the next color (for example, red was used only for Map's mouth and nothing else!).  By the end I was going so nuts that Dora's eyes and hair were the same color, and furthermore, she did not have a pupil, not to mention that glimmer in her eyes.  And she evidently forgot to put her bracelet on, because even though I had mixed the blue colors, I did not use them because if I had, I would have completely lost any shred of sanity I had at that point.  I had allowed myself two hours to decorate Dora; it ended up taking five!
• I have a student working with me who worked with me the summer before last.  He has a prestigious fellowship and worked with me the other summer on something completely unrelated to his research.  He asked me if he could come back and I could help him with something that he's doing for his research.  I said "of course" and the rest is history.  He's a really smart dude and easy to work with.  He is close to graduation, so he asked me to write him some letters of recommendation for jobs.  I'm trying to figure out if there's a way we can hire him at my workplace.
• Last weekend, we went to Memphis.  We saw the children's museum, which Vinny loved.  They had this wind tunnel with a model airplane in it, and you could turn the fans on to create the wind, then operate some levers which would operate the flaps on the airplane and lift it into the air.  He absolutely loved that wind tunnel because it had fans!  He was talking about the "fan tunnel" for days.  We also went to a place called Incredible Pizza, which was a pizza buffet plus arcade games and also larger games such as miniature bowling and go-karts.  Vinny rode with me in a go-kart, and we were winning the race until somebody hit my go-kart in the back left corner and spun me out, which caused the race to stop until they cleared it up.  Some of the other go-karts had passed me before they had to stop for the cleanup, and they ended up winning.  Anyhow, the food was pretty good and the games were fun too.  The next day we went to Graceland, and that was a lot of fun to the adults in the party but not so fun for the four-year-old.  On Monday we headed back home but we stopped at Shiloh National Battlefield Park, where a major Civil War battle was fought.
• Then, I stayed home for the rest of the week.  I went in to work for a half day on Wednesday, but otherwise I just spent the week at home.  I did some cleaning up around the house, and I did some shopping, and Jeff and I went out to lunch together once, but I basically took it easy all week, which was really nice.  I really needed to get away from work for a while, and I feel really refreshed after this time away.
• Today, Dad and Marvis are coming to celebrate Vinny's birthday.  It should be a lot of fun!

The Beauty of Spring

I was inspired by Monday's run, as grueling as it was, to take some pictures of the natural beauty in these parts. Here is a picture of the gravel path with my walking companions up ahead of me (as usual):



The redbuds are so prolific at this time of year. I am always amazed at all the pink that I see everywhere I look. It's hard to remember this when everything is just green.



As we neared a fork in the path, I took a picture of the road less taken (i.e., the one we did not take). It is beautiful out there!

SNOW!

So, we had some snow here yesterday afternoon. It's maybe 1/4 inch, tops, which wouldn't be that big of a deal to this former Illinoisian, except for two things: 1, the crazy Tennessee drivers, and 2, the ice. My normal 25-minute commute turned into a 90-minute commute last night. It took me 45 minutes just to get out of the gate at my workplace. I don't believe I've ever driven for so long in first gear. I had to take an alternate route as well, because when I saw the long line of cars backed up on the big hill where I turn left, I decided it would be prudent to keep going straight and take the long, roundabout way. Once I did that, I started to be able to drive faster than 5 mph -- up to 30 or 35 on the main road, which was wet but not icy. The most hair-raising part of my drive was actually driving down my driveway -- it is kind of steep and points down, so if it had been slippery I could have damaged my house in addition to my car. Luckily it was just fine.

My workplace is on a two-hour delay this morning, so I am not late (yet). I figured it would be smart to wait until the sun may have melted the stuff on my driveway before trying to back the car out.

My Daily Scenic Drive

One thing I really like about living here is how beautiful the scenery is. There are breathtaking landscapes just about everywhere you look.

Inspired by my budding supercomputer supermodeling career, I decided to snap a photo shoot of my own: the scenic things I see every day as I drive to and from work. Enjoy!

This is a view from the parking lot where I park my car. The area behind the parking lot is full of trees of all kinds.
This is a closeup of part of the previous picture. You can see the dogwood in bloom. Unfortunately, the redbuds were pretty much done by this point, so you can't see them here.

There's a beautiful scene that I encounter every day, on the property of my workplace, where a lake inlet comes right up next to the road and the tree cover breaks. You can see this inlet surrounded by trees on either side, and it's just gorgeous. Unfortunately, it's hard to get a picture of it without stopping by the side of the road and I didn't really have the time to do that the other day. Maybe I'll capture that image for you later. All my subsequent pictures were taken at stoplights when I was stopped.


At a stoplight, where I'm about to turn left.

This is another view of that clump of trees up the hill from the previous picture. Okay, yes, I did take this when I was driving. But actually, I wasn't looking at the camera -- I had begun to take a picture right as the light turned green. It took several seconds (thanks to the red-eye preventive flash sequence) for the picture to be taken. By the time the picture was snapped, I'd already turned left and was driving up the hill.

This is a typical view at a stoplight in town. Notice the hills in the distance. In the evening, when the sun is setting, they are positively spectacular!

I Would Laugh if It Weren't So Sad

Four super-genius Republicans in the Tennessee legislature, hell-bent on making our state look even stupider than it is, have joined in a lawsuit put forth by a Russian immigrant, demanding that President Barack Obama show his birth certificate and prove that he is a United States citizen.

Never mind that he already did that.  But even if he hadn't, and even if he was born in Kenya, he's still a natural-born U.S. Citizen under the law.  It's also a problematic move on their parts, because without any evidence to support their claims as plaintiffs, our legislature's best and brightest aren't going to get real far.  So glad we have smart men like these, with such a deep understanding of legal procedures, involved in the creation of laws in this state.

Have You Voted Yet?

Hello, my dearest American friends. If you have not yet voted today, please do. Yes, even if your vote and mine would cancel each other out. Especially if you want to cancel my vote out, because by the time this posts I will have already voted, so there!

Seriously, it's an extremely historic occasion, and I am proud to say that I voted on the day that we will probably elect the first non-white president in the history of the United States, even though I live in a state that is going to go the other way, no doubt about it.

Anyhow, go out and vote. Exercise your rights. And make sure to double- and triple-check your vote before you turn it in.

Weekend Adventures with Grandparents

In honor of our beloved son's second birthday, Jeff and I decided to rent a cabin at Big Ridge State Park and invite his four grandparents to join us. Jeff's parents and my dad and bonus mom came down on Friday.

On Friday afternoon, they went on a tour of my lab, including a tour of the area I work in. Then we headed for the cabin. We got there after closing time, and didn't know how to get the key to our cabin. Luckily, there was a ranger from a different park coming out of the restroom at the time, and she was able to find out with a phone call that our key could be found in the mailbox.

After unpacking our bags and putting our food in the fridge in the cabin, we headed out to a nearby town for pizza (Vinny's favorite food). We found a local pizza place and shared two pizzas before returning to the cabin for the night.

In the morning, I had planned to make some pancakes for us all to enjoy. I'd mixed all the dry ingredients at home, and would mix in the wet ingredients at the cabin. But I realized that I had forgotten my two-burner griddle, and sent Jeff back to our house for it and a few other things (such as allergy medication). Then, after he got back, I realized we had forgotten the eggs, so Dad and Marvis went out to get some eggs. Finally, we had all the ingredients for our breakfast, which we enjoyed at about noon.

In the afternoon, we took Vinny down to the playground at the park. He really enjoyed slides for the first time. He figured out how to slide down a slide by himself, which is a pretty big development. In fact, there was a corkscrew slide that he was somewhat intimidated by, so I offered to help him go down it, but before I could get seated, he'd accidentally fallen down it. I was worried that it would freak him out but it seemed to have the opposite effect. He couldn't get enough of that slide, and he must have gone down it a dozen times or more.

That evening, we cooked hamburgers and brats on the charcoal grill for Vinny's birthday dinner. We enjoyed the hamburgers and brats along with some red potatoes with rosemary, potato chips, and fruit salad. After dinner, we opened Vinny's presents to give us some time to make room for cake and ice cream.

I had made Vinny a cocoa devil's food cake (my standard chocolate cake) with raspberry filling between the layers and white frosting on the outside. As it turns out, my son is more of an ice cream eater than a cake eater. He ate all his ice cream and some of mine, but ate only a few bites of the cake.

Having so much sugar so late made it a little difficult to put Vinny to bed, but eventually he did fall asleep. In the morning, Jeff and his parents went to Quaker Meeting, while the rest of us cleaned up the cabin before taking Vinny back to the playground one more time. Then, we drove back home, where Dad and Marvis assembled Vinny's new Vinny-sized table for him.

Eventually Jeff and his parents arrived home again, but we discovered that Jeff's dad had left his camera at the cabin, so Jeff and his dad drove back there to retrieve it.

Over all, it was a really fun weekend together. We all had so much fun getting together and appreciating Vinny. We may all differ when it comes to politics, religion, or other matters of opinion, but one thing we all agree upon is that Vinny is a fantastic little boy.

Power Winners!

Sorry, my vast blogging audience, for my involuntary hiatus. I had intended to announce the winners of the contest on the 8th (=2³) but then my life and my job got in the way. So I decided that the 16th, which is two squared, squared, was a good alternative date. I'm future-posting this at 2:32 am, just to get a few extra powers of two in there. I may be awake at that time, but doing all the work I'm supposed to be doing rather than writing this post.

Anyhow, there were some terrific entries in the contest, and it was hard to decide who should win. In keeping with the theme, I will announce them in terms of powers of two.

2² place: A tie between Lost Clown and Rico, who describe their geektastic obsessions with cyclic groups and sums of 1/2^N, respectively. You are my kind of people! When I get around to it, I will post pictures of my powers of two cake, which illustrates concretely (actually, chocolately) the fact that the sum of 1/2^N is finite.

2²-1 place: Rachel, with the bimetalic Toonie, her favorite coin. If you bring those coins south of the border, they'll be worth more than $2. Heck, at the rate the dollar's plummeting, they might be worth $2² American sometime soon!

2¹st place: Laura, who shared a favorite song featuring the powers of two. See, math and music share a special relationship!

and...

2⁰th place: Pete, whose father, mother, and he are each twins. 'Cause that's just cool.

All those of you who are not my family members or colleagues have won a very exciting prize: your choice of a Tennessee ball cap or t-shirt.

Why? Because a) I live in Tennessee, and you don't, and b) Tennessee is a power-of-two themed state name. It has four (=2²) unique letters, each of which appears in it a power-of-two times (T -- once; e -- four times; n and s -- twice each). And, depending on where in the state you live, it is pronounced with either two or four syllables (TEN-see or TEN-uh-say-ee).

If you want to collect your prize, simply leave a comment with your choice, the size (if applicable), and a mailing address to which I can send your prize. The comments are moderated, and I promise not to publish your contact information. If you don't feel comfortable claiming your prize, don't worry about it; that's less work for me.

Winter Weather

After going from Illinois winters to Tennessee winters, I now understand how my Wisconsin-native parents felt about Kentucky winters. They're wimpy! It just doesn't get cold. The first two winters here, I kept wondering when winter would actually come. It felt more like a prolonged autumn.

I would laugh at my Tennessee-native friends and colleagues, who would bundle up at the first sign of the temperature dipping below 50. Those first two years, I would occasionally don thermal underwear, but I never got out my super heavy Illinois coat.

The past two days, however, have been remarkably cold for Tennessee. The temperature did not make it above freezing at all, and in the morning on my way to work, the temperature was in the teens. So I pulled out the Illinois coat and gloves, and felt pleasantly nostalgic. Okay, so the low temperature (14 degrees yesterday) was a temperature that would pass for a high in Illinois, but it felt good to don the accoutrements of cold weather, zip up that coat, and fumble with my keys through the thick gloves.

Home Again!

We're back! (I bet you didn't realize we were gone! Well, we were. I just didn't want to announce that our house would be vacant to all of teh internets.)

We went to suburban Chicago for a family reunion and then on to Urbana so that I could give a seminar and meet with my former adviser and the rest of the scientific computing group, before heading home. We left on Thursday and got home yesterday.

When Vinny was very young, he didn't seem to mind riding in the car at all, but now he seems to take great issue with it. But after we figured out that he was much happier if one of us was sitting in the back with him, the drive went much more smoothly.

On the way up to Chicago, we stopped in at Jeff's parents' place for a few hours so that they could see Vinny. Then we went as far as Indianapolis before stopping for the night. We made it to the Chicago suburbs by the late afternoon, and introduced Vinny to the relatives who had already arrived at the hotel. That evening, I took Vinny with me to have dinner with a friend of mine who works at Argonne and her family. It was really fun to see them.

We went to a nearby Mexican restaurant, and Vinny was looking at my plate of food rather longingly, so I fed him some of my refried beans. I already knew from our friends Adam and Jody's house that he liked refried beans, but until that evening I did not realize the degree to which he loved them. He ate all my refried beans! Usually he gets to a point where he's had enough of whatever I'm feeding him, and turns his head to refuse, but every time he saw those frijoles coming towards him, he opened his mouth wide!

On Saturday we had family reunion activities all day, including an extended family reunion with hundreds of people I don't even know, all of whom were descended from some Scottish siblings, more than half of whom immigrated to the Naperville area, with the rest staying in Scotland. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very exciting reunion; in the past, they had people wearing kilts and playing bagpipes, or last time it was a cousin who plays the koto professionally in Japan, but there was nothing entertaining like that this time. So we left shortly after the panoramic picture was taken.

For dinner we went to an enormous Chinese buffet. It was an amazing place; they had more foods than I imagined possible, including fresh lychees that you could peel and eat! Lychees aren't too bad when canned, but fresh, they are just plain delicious. The flavor is a lot stronger. Anyhow, they also had sweet potatoes, of all things, so I mashed a piece of sweet potato up and fed it to Vinny, and he loved it almost as much as he loved the refried beans! And that is saying a lot, because he was crazy about those refried beans.

After dinner, there was a gathering of the descendants of my paternal grandfather and his siblings. This was interesting, because it meant we got to catch up on a lot of relatives we had last seen five years ago at the last reunion.

On Sunday, we went to a family reunion for the descendants of my paternal grandmother and her siblings. That reunion was organized by one of my uncles, and it was really interesting to meet all those people, some of whom I'd never met before. We also got copies of a book written by my grandmother about her mother and grandmother. I have read some of it, and it's very interesting. I look forward to getting more time to read it.

After that reunion, we caravaned with my dad and bonus mom, grandmother, and my aunt and uncle and their two kids to Urbana, where my aunt and uncle and family live. We had some pizza for dinner before Dad, Bonus Mom, and Grandma took off again for their final destination of the evening: Grandma's house.

It was so weird to be back in Urbana. I hadn't been back in nearly two years. Going to my aunt and uncle's house was very comfortable and comforting. Checking into a hotel instead of walking eight blocks home (as we used to do) was strange. Going back to my old department felt really good and quite comfortable, but things were very different and a lot of people I knew have (like me) graduated and moved on. My seminar was well-received, and a lot of interesting questions were asked and I had a few new things to think about. After the seminar, I went out to lunch with my old group, and I brought Vinny along. We went to a Mexican restaurant, so I was careful to order something that came with refried beans, which, once again, Vinny ate in their entirety.

After the day was over, Jeff picked Vinny and me up, and we went out to dinner with an old friend, to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. The food was delicious as usual. It was a lot of fun to talk with that friend, and to play a game with him after dinner. We also took the time to drive past our old house. It looks really good. The current owner kept most of our landscaping, including the herb garden in the between the sidewalk and the road, our red groundcover roses, the star magnolia, and little bur oak tree (which is not so little anymore!), and added some of her own taste to it. I was very pleased to see the house so loved and well taken care of, but it still looked so familiar that I felt sort of surprised that we weren't turning in to the driveway.

There is a lot that I miss about Urbana. I didn't go into the library, because I knew that if I did, I would cry. I did ride the bus just like I used to (except for the fact that this time, I had to pay instead of just flashing my student ID), even remembering exactly where to get off to get where I needed to be. What I wouldn't give to be able to ride the bus to work every day!

On Tuesday, we began the long trip home. We decided to take the Western route, because we wanted to stop in the Amish country south of Urbana on the way. There was an Amish grocery store that we loved to go to when we lived there, where we would go to stock up on bulk spices. We really haven't found a place around here that sells the spices in bulk like that. So we took advantage of our proximity to stop in at that grocery store. We spent that night in Clarksville, Tennessee, and then drove the rest of the way home yesterday.

It is good to be home. When I'm here, it really does seem like home. Urbana has that pull on my heartstrings, and I miss it a lot. After all, I spent the majority of my adult life there. But I am getting used to it here and I do enjoy a lot of things about Tennessee. One thing I don't miss is the low income of a graduate student! Maybe someday I will get a chance to move back there, but in the meantime, this is home.

Loving and loving

This week marks the fortieth anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia decision, in which Virginia's anti-miscegenation laws were struck down. It seems obvious nowadays that there is no good reason to prohibit members of different "races" from marrying. After all, as we probe into understanding the human genome, we have come to the inescapable conclusion that race is a purely artificial construct.

Also, June is Gay Pride Month. So it seems like the perfect time to talk about marriage equality!

I always end up in a state of awe when I read the insights of the ever-brilliant Terrance of The Republic of T on just about any topic he sets his mind to. His posts on gay marriage are no exception. Of course, the topic is near and dear to his heart, as he is a gay man. But he still has the remarkable ability to remove himself from the equation and examine both the motives of the gay community in desiring marriage equality and the motives of those who oppose legalizing his relationship with his true love, just because they have the same equipment between their legs. (Those are just two of his many amazing posts.)

It's depressing to think that because of their rigid viewpoints, intolerant people are trying to prevent someone from having their loved one at their side when they're on their deathbed, costing taxpayers money by not allowing gays to adopt children out of the costly foster care system or boosting the economy by a cool billion dollars by allowing same-sex marriages, forcing people to, as Terrance so eloquently puts it, "settle for their second-best life,"etc. These people repudiate their own humanity when they deny the existence of true love, just because the lovers in question share similarities in their reproductive system.

I was talking to my younger sister about her future the other day. She will soon graduate with a doctorate in Religious Studies, and she'll be on the job market. I was asking her where she'd like to end up, and I was saddened to realize that if she does what's best for herself, Anne, and any children they might end up having, it won't be anywhere near me.

In Virginia, where she lives, they voted in a new law, prohibiting same-sex marriage from ever even considering being valid in Virginia, even if the marriage is valid elsewhere. My own state is no better, with 80% of the voter turnout showing its ugly, bigoted side by supporting a measure almost as vile as that enacted in Virginia. If it were only our two states complicit in denying people's rights! Alas, it is not. They are but two of the latest casualties to homophobia.

Yes, I am angry. There is no room in this society for bigoted homophobes to ruin the lives of decent people. Tennessee badly needs an influx of creative, dynamic, energetic people to revitalize its economy, pay for needed improvements to its infrastructure, and improve its educational system. But bigoted measures like anti-marriage-equality amendments only repel people the very people we need!

And I'm not just talking about gay people. Until there's a critical mass of diversity, it will be hard to attract anyone who doesn't fit into the white, "Christian" mold. Only the strongest (or perhaps the craziest) misfits will be brave enough to inhabit this state. I am one of them and I'm not going anywhere. This is my home and I have a right to it. And if I wait long enough, I know that rational thought and decency will prevail.

Some insights I have gained from Terrance have given me hope. In particular, he talked about what made the Loving v. Virginia ruling possible. Quoting from this Washington Post article that Terrance cites in his most recent post on the topic,

"Nowadays everyone agrees that bans on interracial marriages are unconstitutional, and even if they weren't, few people would support them. But Loving illustrates something important about the evolution of constitutional law.... At one point, [anti-miscegenation, segregation laws, and discrimination against women] were seen as legitimate reflections of the world, not as invidious attempts to impose inequality. When the court held these practices unconstitutional, it was neither enforcing a rule that had existed since 1868 nor creating a new rule. It was recognizing that social attitudes had shifted, and with them the understanding about what is reasonable and what is invidious."

So maybe we are currently in the depressing middle installment of the gay-marriage saga trilogy. Maybe at this moment, The Empire Strikes Back, but soon, we will mark The Return of the Jedi. Public opinion is shifting towards agreeing that love can bloom in all places, even between two members of the same sex.

Weather Update

Last weekend, Dad and Marvis came back through here on their way home from spring break. They arrived late Saturday evening and left late Sunday morning. They were of course excited to see their grandson. But almost as exciting as that is what Dad saw outside as I was making pancakes for breakfast on Sunday morning.

We've had quite a cold snap over the past couple of weeks. We are well into spring so this has been very hard on all the plants. Before the cold snap the dogwoods were at their peak and we were about to see the azaleas bloom. Well, last Saturday night, it got down into the teens and killed all the azalea flowers. It also killed a lot of trees' leaves that were still small and tender. But the interesting thing was what happened to a poor crape myrtle on one side of our driveway.


Apparently the roots of the crape myrtle didn't get the message that it was cold, and kept pumping sap into the branches. Then the branches froze and cracked, and the sap kept oozing out and froze into these ribbons of ice. Dad had never seen anything like it, so he and Jeff took a whole bunch of pictures of it. Dad showed it to one of his colleagues last week, who referred him to this page with pictures of this phenomenon, also taken in Tennessee.

I think that the crape myrtle is probably dead, unfortunately. And our beautiful spring got wiped out. Plus we had to get out our winter clothes again. But it should be over soon (I hope).

Freedom to Marry Week

I learned today that it's Freedom to Marry Week. The purpose of this week is to raise awareness and encourage marriage equality.

Unlike most of my fellow Tennesseeans, I voted against Proposition One (prohibiting same-sex marriage) on our ballot in the fall. I believe that the state should recognize the union of two consenting adults who love one another, regardless of the parity or disparity in their 23rd pair of chromosomes. As I've said before, marriage is not a religious institution; otherwise, the marriages of atheists like me would not be valid. If churches don't want to perform the sacrament of marriage for same-sex couples, that's fine with me. They wouldn't want to perform the sacrament of marriage for me, either, and it wouldn't be fair to require them to do so. But the secular institution of marriage is beyond their purview.

I've always been a proponent of marriage equality, but this issue is near and dear to my heart because there are people near and dear to me who are adversely affected by the marriage double standard. Two of my immediate family members are left without legal recourse in the event of the decline, hospitalization, or wrongful death of their dearest loved one. And while I may not be on such great terms with one of those family members, I still don't think it's right for her to be deprived of the rights that my husband and I enjoy purely by virtue of having different organs.

Snow!

We were supposed to get something like four inches of snow overnight last night. I was so excited: I parked the car on the street just in case the driveway was too slick, I got out my boots, and I set my alarm for extra early to make sure I'd be on time to my opthamologist appointment.

At 3:30 a.m., Vinny woke up screaming because he was both hungry and all wet. After I changed his outfit, I looked out the window and didn't see any snow. But when my alarm went off I saw that there was maybe an inch of snow on the grass; the pavement was clear. The car was also covered with snow, so not all was lost. I used my super deluxe Illinois scraper (not my badge) to clear the snow off the car, which took a grand total of two minutes, and I was early for my appointment.

By the time I got out of the eye doctor's office, the snow had pretty much melted away. So that was a disappointment. I really miss the snow in Illinois. I don't miss the cold, though. Monday's expected high in Urbana: four degrees F!

Car Thoughts

When we first moved to Illinois, I remember being intrigued by all the personalized license plates. Easily one out of every ten plates was an expression of the driver's personality. I always wondered why so many people there chose to invest in vanity plates. I'm sure that the fact that it was only twenty dollars more than the regular $78 license fee was a factor.

Here in Tennessee, I see very few personalized license plates. Perhaps this is because a twenty dollar premium would nearly double the price of your plates. Instead it seems that many people here use their rear windshields to memorialize dead loved ones. I've seen several memorials to children whose lives were tragically shortened, perhaps by illness or even a drunk driver. Until I moved here I had never seen such a thing. Is this a local phenomenon?

Adventures in Travel

So we decided to get away this weekend for our last child-free getaway. Jeff decided that we should head south. We didn't actually end up getting very far, only to Chattanooga. But we had a good time because no matter where we go, being together is fun. Also, there are a lot of things to see and do in Chattanooga.

On Friday night, we got off the interstate at an exit that promised to have lots of hotels. It was a good thing it did, because we went to three hotels that didn't have any non-smoking rooms before we found a fourth hotel where we could stay. By that time it was very late and after I looked at some brochures about the area I went right to sleep.

We did not see the eponymous choo-choo. But there is a park where you can go and see it. Instead, we went to Rock City, a kitchy attraction made famous by barn advertisements throughout the nation. We never knew where it was until our neighbors told us it was there near Chattanooga (actually just a few miles south, in Georgia). It was an interesting place although a bit challenging to navigate. You walk along all these paths through rocks and gardens. I managed to squeeze through "Needle's Eye" and "Fat Man's Squeeze" although I'm glad we didn't take this trip a few weeks from now. I was pretty worn out by the time we got out.

Then, since we were so close and Jeff had never been, we drove into Alabama and had lunch there. In case you were curious, Chattanooga and Georgia are on the eastern time zone, and Alabama, about 20 miles west, is on the central time zone. After lunch in Alabama, we traveled back to Chattanooga and went to the Tennessee Aquarium, where we saw an IMAX movie before going into the two aquarium exhibits. Both exhibits begin at the top of the building and proceed downward. First we saw an exhibit about rivers, and it was really interesting. The other exhibit was about the oceans. By that time I was getting really tired. After we saw the aquariums we headed back to our hotel where we rested up before going out to dinner.

We left for home on Sunday, and we spent the rest of the day resting up. Then today we went shopping in preparation for packing our bag for the hospital. There were a lot of things we needed to get, including snacks, toiletries, a bathrobe, and nursing bras and nightgowns. Jeff had the patience of a saint while waiting for me to try everything on.

There are a lot more fun and interesting things to do in Chattanooga and I hope we'll get down there again someday. For example, there is the Chicamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway (which I want to ride next time), and a riverboat cruise. I never knew there was so much to do in Chattanooga.

Adventures in Being a Visitor and Being Visited

Sorry for the lapse in posting but I have been very busy these past two weekends, busy being a bad guest and a bad host (ha ha just a little joke for you there Laura)! Last weekend my fearless sister Rachel came to visit, and the weekend before that, I visited Dad and Marvis in Lexington.

I had a good time in Lexington. Jeff spent the weekend in Louisville, visiting with his family and his high school buddies, but he dropped me off in Lexington on the way. It was really good to see Dad and Marvis and their beautiful new deck. I also got to see many bonus-relatives, including Austin, Vaughan, Brian, and Maya. On Saturday morning we went to the farmers' market downtown, and then we walked around the neighborhood because it was the neighborhood garage sale weekend. At one garage sale a woman was selling lots of baby clothes, so I came away with a dozen like-new baby outfits for a dollar each. After eating lunch with Austin, we went to see the Prairie Home Companion movie, and then to the arboretum to see Dad and Marvis' rose plot. The next morning I saw Grandma, who was in her own little world but otherwise doing well. That day she was stressing the importance of saying with pride (and proper diction) "I come from a good family." And in case anyone was wondering, you must say all three syllables of "fam-i-ly." After that we had a nice lunch with all the above-mentioned bonus relatives, and after lunch I got to talk quite a bit with Vaughan and Austin. By mid-afternoon, Jeff arrived and we headed back home to Oak Ridge.

On Thursday night, we went to pick up Rachel from the airport. She was visiting to fulfill my graduation wish: since she couldn't make it to my party last year, I requested that she come visit me wherever I ended up. I took a day off from work on Friday, and after a blueberry pancake breakfast, we went to Gatlinburg and saw the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum before heading to Pigeon Forge and Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. We all had a good time there. Jeff enjoyed the bluegrass music pre-show, I enjoyed drinking a cold, fruity drink from the souvenir boot-shaped mugs (all three of which went home with Rachel), and the show was kind of fun too: a "friendly North-South rivalry" expressed through contests and competitions, such as horse and wagon racing, chicken chasing, and ostrich-racing. If you just forgot about their description of the origin of the rivalry (originating in 1861 over different ideas about freedom) and the fact that you were being served your dinner by people dressed in Union blue or Rebel gray, it was a fun show. The food was good too, although they did not believe in eating utensils so you had to eat everything (including a whole chicken [more like the size of a Cornish hen]) with your fingers.

On Saturday Rachel joined our usual role-playing group and had a lot of fun entering the game as a not-so-bright but very kindly paladin. She thought that the gnome character was a child and pinched his cheeks a lot and the like. It was quite humorous and made for a lively game. I should also add that she made our dinner that night: a delicious lasagna. I made the dessert: lemon poppy-seed cake, which was a bit lemony for Jeff but I found it quite delicious. We were sad that on Sunday she had to leave, but she'll be back in October after the baby is born.

Adventures in Oak Ridge

Today we hosted some out-of-town visitors: Dad, Marvis, Marvis' mom Ruth, Marvis' aunt Eda, Marvis' sister Leslie, brother-in-law Kenny, and niece Layne. (I don't know that I spelled everyone's names right.) Anyhow, they came down from where they had all gathered, in Lexington, to tour Oak Ridge, because Ruth and her husband Marvin had both worked here during the war, and both of their daughters were born here too.

First we had a late lunch at Panera, before heading to the commemorative walk that we had taken Dad and Marvis to on their last visit. Next we saw the house where they lived while in Oak Ridge. It just so happened that the owner of that house was walking into her house while we were there, and she invited Ruth, Leslie, and Marvis into the house to take a look around. Marvis was less than two years old when they moved, so she didn't remember anything about it, but Leslie and Ruth said that not much had changed, at least in the layout of the house. Then we headed over to Jackson Square, and we saw that and then the chapel on the hill where Ruth had sung in the choir. Finally we ended up back at Panera for some thirst-quenching drinks after this hot day, and they took off from there.

It was really nice to meet Marvis' family members. We had already met her mother, but Jeff and I met all the others for the first time today. I was glad they got a chance to come down here and see the city and see us too.

Neighborhood Block Party

On Friday evening, our neighborhood held a block party. Each family had to bring a main dish and a side dish to share. Jeff made some fried chicken strips breaded with his secret recipe. I made a Texas sheet cake (chocolate cake with chocolate frosting). Jeff's chicken was a big hit, and my cake wasn't too unpopular, either.

We met a lot of neighbors and it was a lot of fun. Our neighborhood has a lot of people of different ages: we sat next to a woman who has lived here for 45 years, and there was a 2.5-week-old baby in attendance too.

The police department sent out their neighborhood watch coordinator to talk to us about starting a neighborhood watch. Apparently there's a bit of a drug problem in town, which is what probably motivated the thefts that we had a few months ago. We got some brochures about keeping our house and neighborhood safe, and neighborhood watch stickers. We should be getting a neighborhood watch sign soon, too.

Our neighborhood is amazing. Apparently there has been this annual party for 30+ years. Everybody knows everybody else in the neighborhood, so we are one step ahead of some of the city's neighborhoods. I really like our house and neighborhood. It's nice because everyone is so friendly and they all look after each other. On the other hand, we have a lot more privacy than we did at our house in Illinois, because our houses are farther apart, and we have no backdoor neighbors (unless you count the people hundreds of feet down the hill). I think we picked a really good place to live.