Appropriate Footwear

I biked over to the University of Nebraska’s City Campus Monday night. I’m taking a chemistry course this fall. [As a tangent I’ll say that I’m pretty excited about chemistry. What other course syllabus will explicitly tell me that “explosions are strongly discouraged as part of your coursework”?]

Anyway I was running a little late because my bike lock is a colossal pain in the neck and I scooted through the door just as lab was getting started. I ducked my head in shame, found my workstation and commenced unpacking my backpack. Lots of rumbling and rustling around in my bag later [Yes, I'm that ~noisy~ person in the back of the classroom] I finally located my calculator, notebook and safety goggles. I was carefully squaring each of them in a neat, sort of symmetrical, ensemble on the work surface when I glanced down past my notebook to my feet. Sandals. Dah! I had spaced the course safety requirement to wear closed-toe shoes.

Evidently this wasn’t my T.A.’s first time with her student showing up to the open-toed-shoe rodeo. She handed me a pair of blue nytrile gloves to slip onto my feet as socks. If you’re at all familiar with the pampered lifestyle my feet are commonly afforded you’ll appreciate the severe demotion to sweaty-blue-smurf status they received here.

I'm generally a forgetful person. My feet, however, remember everything. It's safe to say I won’t be forgetting appropriate footwear for lab again.

What I Suddenly Understand

My job is to make people uncomfortable. + I will do it all my life. ---> My mother, Sasha Blake, is my first victim.

— Jennifer Egan (A Visit from the Goon Squad)
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Sunday Bike Ride: 18 miles (Jamaica Trail)
Dinner Line-Up: Stuffed Yellow Peppers & Green Salad

Come On, Irene, Oh I Swear....

Thanks, Dylan. Take cover, man.

Fall Semester

At the start of every fall semester I conjure the only moment I can recall from the late '90s film "You've Got Mail". Tom Hanks talks about how autumn makes him want to go out and buy school supplies. He makes the romantic offering to send Meg Ryan a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils if only he knew her name and address.

I'm taking a heavy course load this semester. I still hope to keep up my blog, but can't make many promises. Sigh.
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Recently Enjoyed: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Personal Soundtrack: Tangled Up In Blue by Bob Dylan

X-Files The Musical

That's right, I attended the Colonel Mustard Amateur Attic Theater Company's third backyard musical which was a parody of The X-Files. It was a hilarious theatrical spectacle poking fun at the somber, overly serious tone of the X-Files series. The backyard performance was puctuated by catchy little tunes like “Totally Platonically…Us” and “Magical Manical Humanimals”

It was a crowded event with more than 600 people in attendance and 1700 computers streaming the performance live online. The rain rolled in and called Friday night's performance to a close about 2/3 of the way through the show which presented some interesting math and logic problems. The deeper observation being that The X-Files World Premier was rained out before it was complete. An act of God....or something else?

(Thanks, Maija, for the photo!)

Kudos

My friend, Tina, welcomed her infant daughter into the world recently. Tina and her husband are now making every attempt to cram as much wildly inappropriate dinner table conversation as possible into the dwindling preverbal years their daughter will enjoy.

Good thinking!
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Smith Falls

Turns out that Nebraska has waterfalls. You have to go to a 20-mile stretch of the Niobrara but you'll find more than 180 of them.

This one is Smith Falls. We ported our canoe along the riverbank and hiked in to see it. The waterfalls in the Niobrara watershed are unique because of their convex faces, meaning that they bulge outward, which the opposite of what waterfalls usually do. Apparently they're convex because they're spring-fed falls and active year-round, which prevents freeze-thaw action from eroding their faces. Also, the faces are apparently protected by minerals from seeping groundwater and by the growth of algae, diatoms and lichens.

Do you feel like you've walked in on my science lecture/vacation slide show? Yeh, kinda. But I'm cool with that. Class dismissed.
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Really Excited About: http://zooniverse.org
Personal Soundtrack: So Hard by The Dixie Chicks. It's that part, near the end, that starts with "last night you told me you can't remember..." it gets me every time.

Fourth Grade Starting Line

Me: Need a zip?
N: Nah, I think this dress is too small.
Me: Really?
N: Yeh, it looks nice enough but I can’t run really fast in this dress. I was trying that out upstairs.
Me: So the dress is a dud for running fast?
N: Yep. I’ll find something else to wear.

Pedaled Up

I went for a bike ride this morning in the cool, wet air. Decided to go a little retro and try out one of Lincoln's older trails in Pioneers Park.

Wow. The spin and roll of the hills made for a pretty tough ride. Gorgeous but tough. More contemporary bike trails sport a level terrain, slow with any elevation change, abandoned by the railroad lines generally. The whole idea that a person would exercise for fun is a pretty new phenomenon. We've tamed the experience to embrace more riders. But this trail was less welcoming. One built for athletes or thrill-seekers.

Silly as it sounds it was that notion that powered me through the terrain this morning. That I could be considered a thrill-seeker.
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Dinner Lineup: Penne pasta with creamy garlic sauce, steamed asparagus, white beans and tomatoes.
Recent Goodness: A Music Mix from the Lovely Ms. B
Sunday Bike Ride:13.2 miles. (Bison Trail & twice around the Pioneers Park Loop)
Excited About: The EN Thompson forum on World Issues topic this year is Water and Global Security

Stefan Alexander

The favorite moment of my day was meeting Mr. Stefan Alexander Landis. Born yesterday to my brother, Matt, and his wife Jen. Evidently Stefan's big sister (2-1/2 yr old Sofia) has dubbed him Beastie Boy. I'm thinking it's a total keeper of a nickname.

Soup's On

I was online yesterday reading about the demise of habitual family dinners. The topic is fertile ground for lots of newsprint from parenting magazines to healthy habit columns or major media circuits everybody chimes in to say, and I’m paraphrasing here, that families are closer, smarter, and healthier when we eat together.

I’m a card carrying member of the family dinner club. Geography works in my favor there. My drive time around town would never, ever be considered a commute. My extended family lives 'round these parts.

Just because we eat together doesn’t mean there’s some idyllic scene at the table with smiling faces and linen napkins. Sometimes the one-meal-that-everyone-would-eat plan is a flop. Sometimes it’s a nagging list rather than a true conversation at the table (“Have you finished your homework?” “The recycling needs to go out tonight.” “Is my Hermonie Granger costume washed?”). Sometimes we openly bicker to be honest. Last night was case and point of that, actually. But the next dinner offers up the opportunity things to smooth things over let it lighten up a little. Family dinners get better with practice.

I'm a believer in sitting down together and letting the evening roll out however it has to. That your seat at that table isn't contingent on being perfect or even particularly well behaved. Would I like you to eat your peas? Yes. Would I like to laugh a lot and have meaningful conversations at every turn? Sure. But like a lot of things family dinners are matter of showing up.
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Quote of My Day: "Hey, kitchen floor, I'll clean ya when I can clean ya. Quit yelling at me! Jerk." (Thanks, Lys)
Currently Reading: Lake Shore Limited by Sue Miller
Jonesin' For: A Long Bike Ride
Good News: My brother and his wife Jen welcomed Stefan Alexander into the world this morning.

Frisbee Physics

N: Mom, I made a scientific observation just now.
Me: Really? What's that?
N: If you tape something to a Frisbee you can launch it.
Me: That sounds about right.
N: But that doesn't work too well if you're taping something heavy to the Frisbee (pause) like a human body or something.
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Recent Goodness: Thanks in no small part to my lab partner, I landed a personal best score in my physics course over the past 10-week summer term. Let's just say I've always been an enthusiastic and interested physics student though not at all skilled. Being an old dawg with this new trick of performing well felt good.

My Summer Vacation

We ventured to the Nebraska Star Party last week. Spotted a distant galaxy, the planet Neptune, a fuzzy dot of a comet, and the Northern Lights. On Wednesday I got an earful about the role of citizen science aspirations to track variable stars in the night sky (See: AAVSO)

Spent four hours canoeing the Niobrara River. Hiked in to see Smith Falls. Practiced Tai Chi on a quiet outcropping of rocks. Studied fossils. N went swimming every day. We camped out at Merritt Reservoir for the whole week. The stargazing/observation field, crowded with telescopes and hot coffee, was open every evening from dusk until dawn.

Sigh. It was a lovely trip.