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.