Welcome to...

The City

Apparently we weren't the only ones with the bright idea to visit NY on a cold winter's day. The close-packed pedestrian traffic on 5th Avenue was like getting on a late running, all-stops, northbound train at Wynyard station. Stroller-pushing parents applied defensive strategies, ramming into the ankles of those in front (us!) to prevent others pushing in.

Pete's Great Aunt

Christmas Loot

Chrismas gift-giving seems more rewarding when the recipients are little. Even braving the shopping crowds is enjoyable. After nearly leaving the stores with an entire toy department, we settled on a baseball mitt/ball set for Noah, craft kits for Jacqueline and playdoh & bath crayons/dyes for Gaby. I think Gaby had the most fun ripping off wrapping paper. Noah was a little confused by the mitt, but approved of the ball. Jacqueline was just taller than the Fur-Real horse that Santa left.

Reflections

Miss Jacqueline was fascinated by the ornaments.

Xmas Lights 06

The year's winner of most elaborate Xmas lights display. This Windmill-St house had choreographed flashing lights in time with music broadcast on FM radio.

Carols on the Green

Lunch with Noah and Co.

At lunch I showed Noah, Pete's nephew, how to turn his smile lemon yellow - possibly to his parent's dismay. Lunch was followed by a trip to the toy store to prep Noah for what Santa was going to bring.

City Fish

This butterfish comes with bonus starfish. I wonder why they're called butterfish

The FedEx Tally

Not only are people criss-crossing the country for the holidays, but millions of presents are also en-route in FedEx and UPS road trains.

Christmas Road Trip '06

On the shortest day of the year, just before 5 am, we left on our 950 mile cross-country drive to the east-coast.

Under Pressure

In high pressure science the puns come too easily, of course, this time there was the distinct possibility that something would explode - safety glasses were involved.

Bird Feed

With the trees striped bare for winter, local Scout(?) troops decorated the branches with edible treats for the birds - pretty at first, but putrid after a few days.

Mid-Holiday Season Turkey

Being away for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, we decided to cook our own mid-season turkey.

Ice Rings

A week below freezing, and seven ice contours by the river... like growth rings on a tree.

Copyedit Hell

Despite the fact that journals employ techinical editors to ensure the grammatical fidelity of published papers, we are required to send manuscripts to the fussy, internal APS copy editors before submission. As far as I can tell, their purpose is to put red pen on each page of a manuscript and hyphenate every second pair of words. If you choose to omit the more obsurd suggestions, the manuscript is returned to you for re-correction. I wonder if I prepared a manuscript for the Journal of Solid State Chemistry (no hyphen!), would copy edit try to add hyphens, i.e., solid-state chemistry as they did today??

Summer's Gone

Storm Slams Midwest*

Overnight, we had our first real snow for the year. OK, we did have a few flakes in October, but that wasn't more than fingernail deep. This time we had rain, then sleet, then snow, then more snow - the perfect recipe for slippery driving conditions. The roads were littered with car-casualties that spun out on the ice trying to get to work before the roads had been cleared. I slept in instead.

* blog title borrowed from tv news

Wood Duck

With 10 megapixel images, you can afford to crop photos a little more. It also helps to lure greedy duckies with food...

Reservoir Falls

A multitude of little streams were draining into the catchment area after constant Thanksgiving rains. Without a tilting LCD screen, I spent quite some time draped on the ground trying to steady the camera on rocks for some long exposures. I really should start carrying a tripod.

Beware of Pucks

Its Thanksgiving eve, and my first ice hockey game (not counting Mighty Ducks 1 & 2). It was everything I expected, with bodies smashing against barriers, player punch-ups and flying pucks.

XTi - f1.8/50mm test shots

Birthday Lobsters

Pete's parents treated him to fresh lobsters for his birthday. The lobsters weren't feeling quite so snappy after their nice warm bath.

Connecticut Thanksgiving

We're back in Connecticut staying with Pete's folks for an extended Thanksgiving holiday. In honour of our holiday, the weather is fantastic, although UPS is yet to show up with my new camera.

Canon 400D/XTi

After years of faithful service from my Olympus C5050, I have finally decided to upgrade. Spending a considerable amount of time finding the best price online, I wanted my new toy ASAP and splurged on next day delivery. With any luck it will be waiting for me when I arrive in Connecticut tomorrow for Thanksgiving along with an extra lens - the Canon f1.8 50mm II.

The Third Decade

It's a big birthday for Pete. As with any new stage in life, this is an excellent opportunity to take up a new hobby - brewing. Thankfully a high quality Australian product was available through Amazon.com and I wasn't forced to resort to the local "Mr Beer" brand.

US Mid-term elections

Yet more elections, and in the absence of compulsory voting, candidates not only need to convince people to vote for them, but to vote at all.

One tactic involves automated calling at odd hours... "I'd like to tell you something about candidate X....". From the X campaign? Nope. Candidate Y motivating anti-X votes - the "make 'em mad" strategy.

Fallingwater

Before returning from Pennsylvania, we visited the famous 1930's Frank Lloyd Wright construction, Fallingwater. The huge horizontal slab floors/terraces are cantilevered directly over a waterfall. My favourite design element? The retractable-glass covered stairs from the lounge down to the river above the falls.

Warhol Gallery

Artworks by the Pittsburgh native not on display in more important art galleries have been assembled to form the Andy Warhol gallery.

Pittsburgh

Escaping Chicago for the Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference.

Caution

Burning the candle at both ends, and in the middle too, with 4 experiments at once. Probably preferable to consecutive experiments but only just.

Brrrr

Its cold. Freezing in fact. We got the first dusting of snow for the winter today which is incidentally the earliest on record in Chicago. I hear there's a heatwave in Sydney.

Midway-BWI-BWI-Midway

An early start (4am) to Maryland for the day to meet with collaborators. We attempted to form an outline for a paper, but with endless digressions we didn't progress much beyond the title.

Argonne Open House

The usually highly secure Argonne gates were thrown wide open today for the "open house" - an exercise in PR. Massive tents were pitched and shuttle buses hired to ferry people around site. Even the APS was opened to the public as Peter Lee explained synchrotron science to all.
	Being on experiments again over the weekend, the open house provided a welcome diversion. On top of getting "thermal portraits", we wandered through exhibits from Argonne divisions we'd never heard of, amassing high quality souvenirs emblazened with the Argonne logo (including playing cards with 52 protein structures solved at the APS).

Rain

After unseasonably heavy rainfall in Chicago, puddles occupy any slight depression in the otherwise flat landscape. The oval where geese normally munch grass is now their new pond.

mini lantern

Sharpening up my carving skills on a mini "pie" pumpkin in preparation for Halloween.

26

Pete gave me this lovely Breville espresso machine for my birthday - a step up from my old one which I was forced to leave at home. It also helps fill the gap left when our favourite cafe "Elan" went out of business (sad, but we could only tolerate so much caffeine per day). We completed our little cafe with a burr grinder. Mmmm... coffee. I wonder if coffee has anti-ageing properties?

Bridges of the Riverwalk

The excellent amenities in Naperville, which includes the riverwalk, probably contribute to its rating as 2nd in the 100 best places to live (in the US).