Ski the Upper Mountain

The scientific interruption to our skiing adventures coincided with a significant snow event. We joined a group lesson for the morning, to ensure our skills were up to par, before exploring new powder patches and more advanced runs in the Supreme and Sugarloaf areas. I finished up ahead of Greg on falls, including a spectacular backward somersault down Sleepy Hollow that left me quite snow coated.

"I have a question"

Chairing conference sessions is hard - just ask Greg, my two-time co-chair. On the other hand, the need to devise a semi-intelligent discussion question, related to an unfamiliar field (in case the other 12 audience members have none), is motivation to be more attentive than ever.

Conferenskiing*

With the Spring ACS meeting being held in Salt Lake City, within 30 min of the "lightest snow on Earth (only 6% water!!!)", we returned to Alta for some fabulous spring skiing. Conditions were ideal for scuffing up some shiny ski gear. In other news, it seems that where ski jackets are concerned, green is the new black.


*This term has been shamelessly appropriated from Dr G.

Wisdom Lost

Fewer teeth take up more room - or so it appears from my expanded jawline.

SuzyQ and JillEBean take Chicago

Suzanne and Jill drop by on their Thelma-and-Louise-esque cross-country trip.

Ski Utah

After a work-related meeting we lingered a little longer in Salt Lake for a ski trip to Alta (no snowboards allowed!). With 2 feet of snow falling overnight and into skiday, they closed the Canyons to traffic just after we made it through, making for a sparsely populated ski field. Of course we were nearly buried in fresh powder on several occasions. After digging ourselves out, we returned to SLC slightly wind-burned and ready for a feast of fresh sushi at Takashi's - yum.

A pile of snow... with personality

cm802900t: Out... finally.

Its probably fitting that work that took forever (~3 yrs) from data to manuscript submission took just-less-than-forever to go from accepted (without changes - woohoo) to published.

I'm testing the theory that bright (burn your retina) colors = eye catching = more people reading the paper.

NYE

Nothing says "have a Happy New Year" like a Lobster-gram (thanks Mike!), complete with everything but the pot of boiling water.

Santa came!!

He ate the cookies, but left Noah lots of exciting toys.

Staying with Noah (& parents), we got to experience the near dawn wake up to open presents.

Jam Session

Caroling with the family - a revival of a Christmas Eve tradition for both our family and the Chupai.

Holiday Visitor

If you can't go home for the holidays, get home (or part thereof) to come to you.

Ben is forgoing a week of piano practice to hang out with his favorite sister over Christmas.

Speedlite 580 EX II

My bright and shiny new toy.

MRS Boston

The Fall MRS is fast becoming a favorite on our annual conference calendar. The program is well planned (talks are 12+3 min - which is always tolerable no matter how dull the topic).

...and who doesn't love Boston which is the Melbourne of New England but with great seafood. Notable dining experiences included lemon ricotta stuffed french toast for breakfast at the Trident cafe, lattes at Espresso Royale, healthy but tasty burgers at Be Good, Sorrelina's holiday lunches and seafood dinners at the Barking Crab.

Election '08

Its no surprise that at the 5th Avenue polling center voting was strongly in favour of the local candidate.

Boo-fest '08

Fall Colour

Due to Inclement Weather...

The volume of the DuPage river multiplied, expanding to the Riverwalk, Centennial beach and nearby streets. The high tide mark ended up level with the 3 m diving board. For those yet to visit us in Naperville, these are pictures of BRIDGES that we normally walk UNDER without ducking.

Shibuya Crossing

Tokyo's version of Time Square only less rectangular.

Now for the fun part

With conferencing commitments out of the way, we're can now focus on being tourists. Joined by Wendy, fresh off a flight from Australia, we caught the shinkansen to Fukuoka-Hakata to meet up with Xina.