Almost like we never left...

It appears as though it’s a good thing we decided to leave a day earlier than we originally planned. Listening to the news this afternoon, they were talking about the 6 inches of snow that Denver got last night and how they were slated to receive quite a bit more. The weather was already causing flights to get delayed and even cancelled today. When we landed there yesterday, there was zero snow and our connecting flight was delayed by about 30 minutes. I believe I heard they could have 20 inches by tomorrow morning. We arrived in Ohio yesterday afternoon. We were totally dragging when we got in, too. Nothing like 2.5 hours of sleep in a 48 hour period, combined with traveling across the country, to completely mess you up. Lorena did take an afternoon nap on Monday and then slept on both flights yesterday. I tried to go to sleep at about 9:30 Monday night because we were planning on getting up at 1AM Tuesday to leave for Spokane at 2AM. I couldn’t sleep and so I decided to read for a little bit. At about 10:30 I was able to roll over and doze off but that alarm was none too friendly at 1. The drive to Spokane wasn’t bad and we got to the airport at about 3:45. According to Frontier Airlines’ website, their ticket counter didn’t open until 4:45 so we figured we had some time to kill in the terminal. I guess the holiday travel rush has the airlines doing a little extra because they opened the ticket counter at 4. We were third in line and the first guy was actually from Ohio. When we put our first big suitcase on the scale, it was 8 lbs overweight and so we had to do some rearranging of the bags. As you’ll find out later, one of the items we transferred between bags didn’t quite make it intact to Ohio. We bought two growlers (1/2 gallon) of beer from Coeur D’Alene Brewing Company to bring with us to Ohio so that Lorena’s brothers could have some of the great beer we get nearly weekly in Moscow. We wrapped those things up in bubble wrap, plastic bags, and clothes to try to protect them from the dangers of airport baggage handling. Since one growler weighs about 4 lbs, we decided to transfer one of them from the overweight bag to the lighter one to quickly get the weight down. If only it was that simple. When we went to pick up our luggage upon arrival at Akron/Canton, there was an unfortunate surprise. I saw the one duffel bag as it came along the belt and it looked like it had gotten wet. I just figured it had gotten wet somehow during the unloading process but then I smelled the vanilla. You see, the growler of beer we had put in that bag was Vanilla Bourbon Stout. We have no idea how it broke but we suspect it may have gotten broken when it was put on the belt in Akron because only a small portion of the bag and some of its contents were wet. The worst part about it is the fact that Coeur D’Alene had run out of the VBS the week prior to our leaving and they weren’t sure if they were going to have more before we left. Luckily, they got more but this was the one beer we really wanted to bring back with us because it’s definitely our favorite. Such is life I guess. Heath and Marty will just have to come visit us in Moscow so they can get it straight from the source. I think the way to beat jetlag is to be a bit sleep deprived prior to traveling because we had no trouble going to bed at “normal” bedtime for Ohio, even though it’s 3 hours ahead of our normal schedule. We slept like logs last night. I went for a run this morning and it was still tough. It just reminded me that I’m not totally back to 100% but was fun nonetheless. Probably the most fun I had today was splitting firewood the old-fashioned way. It’s just not something we do very often and maybe there’s a bit of stress relief to be had swinging that ax; especially when you’re a bit pissed off at a professor because you missed getting an A in his class by 1%. I still ended the semester with a 3.66 GPA and Lorena had a 4.0 and I suppose I can’t complain too much. How does that old saying go? “If only I’d worked a little harder….” We’re here in Navarre until Saturday and then it’s off to Marietta after picking Lori up from the airport in Cleveland. I’m looking forward to splitting some more wood in the morning and will probably go run tomorrow afternoon. With all of the very tasty Christmas cookies around this house, I really have to make sure I get out there and get a little exercise. Right now, I think that more sleep is in order. Good night.

Homeward bound

T-minus 15 hours and 38 minutes until our plane takes off in Spokane. Our flight leaves at 6AM PST (ugh!) on Tuesday and arrives at 3:15PM EST in Akron. It'll be nice to be back home for a while. We'll be heading back to Idaho on January 4th but, boy, will there be a lot going on between now and then. We haven't completely packed yet. We're going to leave here at 2AM because it's a 1.5 hour drive to Spokane. At least the traffic shouldn't be too bad. A lot our errands this morning revolved around last minute gifts and making sure we have enough reading material for the trip. I have a couple of theses to read anyway so I can get a jump on some of my research. Lorena has some papers to read as well. It's rather nice to have a break from school. The last two weeks were rather hellish and now we're just waiting to see how all of my grades pan out. Lorena knows she had all A's and despite today being the deadline, not all of my professors have my grades in. I know I at least got an A in Composites, probably my toughest class. The final was purely qualitative, and the most stressful 3 hours of the semester. It made all of my other stuff seem easy, but, like I said, that remains to be seen. We hope to be able to see as many people as possible while we're in the Buckeye state. It will certainly be fun. Now, I suppose it's time to do a little packing...

When life gives you rubber bands on the ground outside the post office...

... make cat toys! Lorena was at the post office the other day and happened to notice a bunch of rubber bands on the ground outside. It's almost like people stop in and pick up their mail and simply toss the rubber bands on the ground as they're sorting through it on their way to the car. She's noticed this a few times and so she started collecting them because Pokey has almost destroyed his rubber bouncy ball and is in need a of a new one. We started taking these orphaned rubber bands and turned them into a replacement ball. Finals week is almost over so what else do we have to do? Besides, on a graduate student salary we look for any ways to save a few bucks. Look at the free bike frame I picked up a little while ago.... Unfortunately I broke my chain on the way in this morning but all of those old chains I kept have come in handy for such occasions. I'm done with my finals but still have a paper due on Friday. Lorena has her final tomorrow and is studying for it right now. I'll be so glad at about 8:30 Friday morning because that means I'm pretty much done for the semester. It's been an interesting semester to say the least. I can honestly say that I feel better about my engineering knowledge than ever before. I've learned a lot about what I actually do know and have started to think of all sorts of ways to apply it. I actually had to create a little design journal to write down ideas as I get them so that sometime down the road I can actually act on them. Next semester should be even cooler. We're going to be leaving for Ohio next Tuesday for a nice 2 week stint. The only downside is having to leave here at 2AM to drive to Spokane (a 1.5 hour drive) to catch our flight that leaves at 6AM. It's going to be a loooong day. I've got a book to finish before next Monday so, good night.

Welcoming December with a Half Foot of Snow

(written December 1, 2006)

While many of our friends and family were enjoying unseasonably warm temperatures over Thanksgiving weekend, Chris and I were snuggled in our apartment not too far from the gas stove and excitedly watched the snowflakes flutter down. It took awhile for the snow to begin sticking, but once it started accumulating, there was no stopping it. By Monday morning, we had about 3.5 to 4 inches of the white stuff on the ground.

Things are a little different when it comes to snow in Northern Idaho as opposed to Northeast Ohio. Here, the snow plows don’t seem to be used as much as one would think they should and instead of using salt to melt the snow, they spread gravel to increase traction in it. Thus, come Monday morning, the streets were still quite covered and a little slick. The other big difference between here and Ohio is that people actually slow down. Chris and I have continued to ride our bikes in the slop (sorry, bikes) and the motorists have been very gracious and patient with us, even on the climb on the way home.

Wednesday evening brought us nearly a couple more inches of snow and made for an even more difficult commute on Thursday morning. I also had to stop at the public library on the way in, which put me on somewhat of a side street. The snow was thick enough that I could barely get going. I had switched to commuting with my mountain bike as early as Tuesday morning, but the increased surface area did little to help me out on Thursday morning on the less traveled streets. The roads that see a lot of cars are fairly clear, though there are some wheel grabbing piles, worse of all in the middle of intersections where you need to turn.

It was snowing again when Chris came home from class late Thursday night and there was a misty kind of snow hanging in the air Friday morning. I finally wussed out and rode the bus in today, although I would have been here quicker and have been warmer had ridden my bike.