A New England Christmas

Traditional Christmas lights around here are just a candle in each window and in paper bags lining the footpaths.

Chasing Rainbows

Noah didn't find leprechaun's gold at the end of the rainbow but seemed pretty pleased anyway.

Rainbows courtesy of new polished glass shelves over the kitchen window at Pete's parents' place.

Watching Nanoparticles Grow

The gods at Science magazine have smiled on our latest JACS paper, highlighting it in a recent issue (link). At least someone appreciated the results of this high maintenance experiment.

The Key

This is the key to my jail.

Harvest @ the Farmers' Market

One of the best things about our apartment building is the weekly farmers' market full of fresh seasonal produce and conveniently located in our front parking lot.

Locks of Love

A little overdue for a haircut, I headed to the local hair salon and spa (no generic hairdressers here) for a substantial chop of ~12 inches to be sent to Locks of Love to make wigs for kids with cancer.

Word

Writing papers by committee using the "track changes" function makes for colorful manuscripts.

Coffee Break

Cran(berry pump)kin muffins made wearing new apron and latte served in new cups from Suz /Smarty.

MGSK

You may have already guessed from the picture that Suz and Marty are in town for experiments... a CJK-group the early years reunion with Greg and myself... their yearly shopping spree with shiny new shoes for all.

Birthday Loot

No need to be alarmed, it's not a dress (with a t-shirt and jeans), it's my fabulous new apron and birthday present. Thanks Dr G!!

27 = 30-3

It's official - I'm in my late twenties. Birthday highlights included this sweet card (from Pete's parents who are responsible for our new found scrabble addiction), Blu Coral dinner and other loot.

Congratulations Ray &Tina

Back in CT for the weekend to help celebrate Ray (Pete's cousin) and Tina's nuptials.

10 years later

I suppose I knew it was coming - fresh in my inbox, the invitation for my class of 1997 high school reunion. Needless to say it will be a little difficult for me to attend.

Time to give back

After several years of contributing to the reviewing workload while escaping journals' lists of reviewers, I've finally been fingered for a review.

Garden of the Gods

Amidst a surprising abundance of tourist traps, this free public park is a welcome change. Trails weave through the red sandstone rock formations in the almost Martian terrain.

DXC07

This week we're at the Denver X-ray conference in Colorado Springs. Mountain ranges rise sharply to the west and should provide ample diversion from the conference presentations.

ja073791e: Reviews are in

2 x Accept without change (I didn't realise this was a real category)
1 x Accept with minor revisions
= a paper likely to be in press soon

Melissa playing peek-a-boo amongst the roses.

MV Glass

The transformation of blobs of molten glass into decorative vases etc of elaborate shapes and colourings is quite mesmerizing - so much so that we visited the MV glassworks almost daily.

Happy 4th

Nothing says "Happy 4th of July, let's celebrate our national independence" like a chocolate cupcake liberally smothered with red, white and blue frosting (as modeled by Noah).

Mocha Mott's - Good Coffee

There are no chain stores on the Vineyard. No Starbucks, just good coffee. Pete may have overindulged, eventually starting to resemble Mott.

Heading to the Vineyard

We left before sunrise for Martha's Vineyard, an island off the coast of cape cod, and a week's vacation. Yay.

8 Fuzzy Yellows

...swimming round the pond. The mother ducky took her brood for a quick tour of the neighbourhood pond just as we were about to sit down for breakfast. The zoom-y lens is courtesy of Pete's dad who recently acquired a Canon Digital Rebel XTi/400D (a top choice IMO).

Stormfront

Dramatic skies make for a nice mid-afternoon distraction.

The 17 Year Brood

Once upon a time, the cicada-eaters took a season off and the bumper brood was born. Now every 17 years (i.e. this year) their descendants emerge in deafening swarms.

All Dressed up

One of life's major acquisitions - a suit. Often coincides with starting a real job (although a bit of a delayed reaction here).

Critters of the Riverwalk

A hot morning brought the inhabitants of the Riverwalk out to play. The turtle shared the footpath with us for a while. As a slow mover, he stuck around for quite a few photos. The water snake was a little more elusive, but I managed a picture in the end.

The first and only baby ducky sighted all season.

Daisies droop in the humid atmosphere.

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent the American ANZAC day + weekend in Connecticut. This marks the start of summer here and I managed an admirable start to my summer tan, spending a significant amount of time in the pool. It's also a weekend for grilling (bbq) - 3 bbq's in 3 days.

ja073791e Submitted

Words, 1459. Characters, 8905. Sentences, 41. Completing a paper, priceless.
While I'm at it, here are some other fascinating statistics:

Sentences per paragraph	5.1
Words per Sentence	31.9
Characters per word	5.8
Passive Sentences	9%
Flesch-reading ease	0.3
Flesch-Kincaid grade level	12.0

So its is a little harder to read than Green Eggs and Ham (-1.3 grade level), but I don't expect pre-schoolers to be picking it up any time soon. Maybe in 12 years or so.

Starved Rock State Park

On a warm Saturday, we headed to the shady trails of Starved Rock State Park with Peter L and co. Apparently the difference between a state forest and a state park is that in the latter you struggle to make out the trail markings scratched into trees and rocks. In a park the paths are more well defined.

Red Hot Chili Pepper

Proof of my green thumb is a shiny almost red Serrano chili pepper. Note added in proof: Greg has green thumbs too, taking excellent care of the chili during that critical ripening period. Thanks Greg.

Cinco de Mayo

The Mexican version of St Patrick's day seemed like a great reason to feast on salsa, guacamole, enchiladas and Mexican flan (thanks Greg!) all while sipping margaritas.

Spring Tulips

Cold winters = fantastic spring bulbs.

Ben Graduates

The Case of the Missing Suitcase

I beat my bag to Chicago by a significant margin yesterday, with only 1 of our 2 bags waiting on the carousel. An early morning call - my bag was to be delivered while I was at work. Well... either my bag shrank or this is NOT my bag.

Sydney Aquarium

-the largest collection of Australian aquatic life in the WORLD

Canberra Cycling

A weekend in Canberra to catch up with rellies. We managed to fit in a nice bike ride around Lake Burley Griffin in a slight drizzle. It's the ride I missed on a second grade school excursion because I hadn't yet learned to stay on a bike

Jenolan & the Blue Mountains

A day drive (in the shiny new car) with the parental units to Jenolan Caves. We descended through the Orient cave (the one that goes through to China?).
We stopped by the Katoomba on the way home, just in time for a stunning view of the three sisters in the late afternoon sun. This was quite an improvement over our last attempt to see the sisters which was a total white out - if you held out your hand you could barely see your fingertips.

Visa Ready

I'm visa'ed up and ready to go back to work in the US (after a decent holiday). The consulate now appears to take the perfectly sharp photos submitted and extrapolate to how you look at immigration after a 14 hour flight - somewhat out of focus.

Dad's new toys

Dad went on a shopping spree while I've been gone. Not only is he the proud owner of a shiny new car but he's got the big TV he always wanted. Just some of the perks of being semi-retired.

via SFO

We're flying home for a 2 weeks break. For the first time we're going through SFO which is a big improvement on LAX - cleaner, brighter, better food and enough art displays to keep you entertained during a 5 hr stopover.

Sharks sighted near Lake Michigan

SNAP

We're down in Oak Ridge, Tennessee at the new Spallation Neutron Source for a fun little meeting. After a few weeks brushing up on where neutrons come from, everything is making a lot more sense.

Most of the instruments are still under construction and full PPE was required in the experimental hall.

NaperDucks

The ducks have paired-off in time for spring. With any luck we'll be seeing fluffy yellow ducklings sometime soon.