Fond Memories

We think about the happy times with you a lot, Shabbi girl. Remembering how much love and happiness you brought us helps us deal with you not being here now. We love you so very much and miss you terribly.
Mum, Daddy and Kika

Deutschland, Nein!...und Andere...

So, for a bit there, we thought Adam would go to Germany with the Navy for his annual obligation. Just as I was getting appropriately jealous of his venture to my all-time fave country (of the few I've visited), and was making up my list of things he has to bring back for me (Chocolate, maybe some WeisBier, maybe a nice little Cuckoo Clock) he got the ix-nay, the kaibash, on his plans. Seems they don't need him over there so he'll stay in cold Michigan instead. I'm glad to have him here, but bummed not to have some German goodies. Besides, I have an old friend over there he could've met up with for a bit. Oh well.

In other news, we're heading to Chicago this evening for a weekend of military fun!! Actually, it's some kind of we're-here-for-you-now-that-you're-back-from-war-thingy that Adam registered for. I'm not sure how much I will (or am supposed to) participate in; instead, I might check out the Shedd aquarium and museums and coffeeshops located downtown. I do miss the big city atmosphere, and I haven't fully taken advantage of all that Chicago has to offer.

I'm really excited about Monday night, though. My girlfriend Emily has a sister-in-law, Jess Riley (check out her website at www.jessriley.com) who is about to be a published author! Her first book, "Driving Sideways" comes out in May, so keep your eye out for it. Anyway, she belongs to a community of other young, female authors, and one of them, Eileen Cook, will be in East Lansing Monday evening for a book signing at Schulers Book Store in Eastwood Towne Center Mall. They are advertising the event as a "Girls Night Out", with wine and chik lit (women's literature). Most of you who know me know that I'm all about the wine...so I'm going to be reading Ms. Cook's book this weekend so that I'm all ready for the signing event on Monday night. How fun!

Hope everyone has a darned great weekend! If I owe you a phone call, you just might hear from me on the road to or from Chicago. You know how time in a car can get....

Frostbite

So yesterday was a bummer. I had planned my first meeting in my new job and was pretty geared up about it. It required me driving 30 minutes north to meet with staff from a conservation district that we're trying to establish a relationship with. Anyway, I got to work 20 minutes early so that I'd have enough time to get the work vehicle, warm it up and do any of the necessary odd jobs before I took off. Well, nothing ever works out the way you want/expect them to. First, I couldn't figure out which key belonged to the vehicle I was using. Finally got a key, then went down to the parking lot, and wandered around for over 5 minutes looking for the right truck. Thought I found it, but the key wouldn't work. Had to go back upstairs and ask my coworker. Evidently it was the wrong key. Went back down to the parking lot, tried again, and it worked. But, there was a 2-inch sheet of ice on the windshield that needed scraping. Scraper? Yup, finally found it, but I didn't have gloves, and the temps were about 5 below zero. Well, no choice but scrape without gloves on. Only have 25 minutes left to get to my meeting...keep scraping. Finally I scrape enough to be satisfied, truck is all warmed up. I put it into reverse; I hear tires spinning but truck is not moving. I go outside and smell burning rubber. Truck is imbedded in sheet of ice. I try fruitlessly for several more minutes before realizing that I must either cancel my meeting or get another (4X4) vehicle. I go inside and speak to my immediate boss. She says that everyone was thinking that I was incredibly ambitious to try to go out on a day like that. Interesting. So I call the guy I was supposed to meet and cancel. He was not happy but agrees to reschedule. I realize that my fingers are hurting me beyond normal degrees. I can't even pick up a pen. I have frostbite. It lasted all day yesterday and this morning it is even difficult to type. Luckily I don't see any tissue damage, it just really stings whenever my fingers are in warm or cool water. Or typing. Or writing. Or doing anything else that requires grasping. So the moral of the story is, wear your gloves, children!

Great Weekend

Happy Friday!

Happy Happy Birthday, Jayne Glass!

Today is my mum's birthday. She is an amazingly sexy, youthful, beautiful and trendy 58 years old. When you're that sexy, youthful, beautiful and trendy, who cares who knows how old you are, right?
I know it might seem a bit weird for a daughter to be thinking of her mother as all of the aforementioned qualities, but that's just the type of relationship we have. Besides, if her daughter isn't going to be honest with her about her finer qualities, who will?
So, my wonderful mum, I wish you all the best (and a nice day off!) on your 58th birthday. You are an incredible woman and I am proud, nostalgic, fortunate and really happy to be your daughter. You've made me who I am (see, it's your fault!).
Cheers, lady!
Your Laurie

Snow Days

Yesterday was one of those typical Michigan days that I've gotten used to over the last 5 1/2 years. The forecasters were calling for up to 15 inches of snow by nightfall, everyone was going a little hogwild, and I still had to go to work. By the time Adam dropped me off at work, a 'wintry mix' was already starting to fall, but because I work in a windowless room, I had no idea how much momentum it gained during my workday. Around lunchtime I got up to stretch my legs and saw that the campus could barely be seen through all the heavy blowing snow. I remained at work. Around 3pm my brother (who works at NOAA headquarters) sent me a radar map for conditions over Michigan, and of course it confirmed everything that was going on outside. My brother, who lives in Maryland, also didn't fail to mention that it was an unseasonable 70 degrees by him and he was going to take the baby for a walk that evening. I thought of my poor Kika, who has taken to urinating on the back porch because walking down to the yard to pee means being nearly covered in several inches of snow (she's a little dog). At 4pm, my boss came in to say that his wife had called about the poor road conditions and that he was leaving, and I should consider leaving, too. But Adam was at an appointment and I had to wait for him to be done there before he could pick me up. I remained at work. By 4:45 I finally climbed into a warm vehicle, and the usually 10-minute drive to our house took an obscene 35 minutes instead. When we got home, I forced Kika into the yard to do her business; she didn't speak to me for the rest of the night.

We shovelled our neighbor's sidewalk and driveway (she's 77 years old) as well as our own, with no help from the other set of neighbors with whom we share the driveway. They are nice, and hard-working, but they haven't helped shovel that pain-in-the-arse (it's really long) driveway once this winter. Thing is, we can't sit around waiting for them to shovel because they won't, and we don't want to deal with slipping and sliding on an unshovelled driveway. So we shovel and we complain...to ourselves and to our friends and to this blog. We don't complain to them because they are generally really nice people.

After the shovelling was done, my elderly neighbor made me tea and we sat and talked for awhile, which was nice. She works at the local high school cafeteria and was hoping for a snow day today. I was hoping not to get any more snow that would cover up my almost-2 hours of work shovelling; besides, universities hardly ever close down so I knew I would still have to travel through anything else that decided to come down during the night.

They said on the news last night that Lansing got 8 inches of snow, about half of what was predicted, which is always the case. I wonder if we'd actually gotten 15 inches, if I would have had to come to work today. I woke up this morning to NPR listing the school closings this morning. My neighbor got her snow day.

Super Sunday and Manic Monday

So, I got the job. I found out last Thursday morning that they were offering it to me and I accepted right away. It's only four to six months, but I figure it'll be a decent paycheck while I'm looking for something more permanent. Today is my first day and I'm taking a second from my already busy schedule to blog. I am employed by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center on Michigan State University's campus. The goal of the center is to look at the sustainability aspect of biofuel production, in terms of biodiversity and impacts to soils and plant communities. My job is to start up the biodiversity side of the project. We need to communicate with landowners to find suitable fields to conduct insect surveys on. Once we've gotten permission from the landowners to use their fields, I have to help develop a sampling protocol and then do some preliminary surveys (that's what I'm particularly looking forward to!). Why, you might ask, would Lauren be hired to work with insects? First, I have a bit of a background with arthropods; I've spent one year working as a tour guide at MSU's BugHouse. In addition, this job is more focused on the communication and administration of the project rather than the biology of insects, so I was told I'd be fine. Let's hope that remains the case!
Anyhoo, that's what's going on here...
OH,YEAH, not to mention the awesome football game last night. Our Giants came back at the very end (2 minutes left in the game) to kick some Patriots butt. It was a sweet victory over Tom Brady. I got a kick out of the Manning family in the stands for Eli. Great game and a well-deserved win for the hardworking Giants.