Friday, December 25, 2009
House update
Hi everyone - just wanted to share the newly painted and patched (by us) and floor-finished bedroom - before we move back into it!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
December 2009
"The information superhighway showed the average person what some nerd thinks about Star Trek." -Homer Simpson
Dear friends and family,
Fortunately we're not going to tell you what we think of Star Trek, but instead we are sending you more hugs through this multimedia letter!
This was a noteworthy year for us. We got married (a big thank you to everyone who traveled to Cambridge),
and Mike got his PhD (animal communication; the thesis was 250 pages, not that we're counting).
We are pooped from all the traveling! There was Italy (Irene taught a summer school class in Rome, and we swung by Perugia, Modena, and Trento. Irene dragged Mike to Venice. Okay, it was a tourist trap, but it was also very unique - no cars!),
Spain, actually twice (beachfront conferences, one in Sant Feliu near Barcelona and one in Mallorca),
Guyana (Mike brought a class there to learn about tropical ecology; they all survived),
and Munich, Germany, (sorry, no pictures, we drank too much beer).
Back in the US, we looped around the states a bit. In Seattle we celebrated our friend's wedding and visited an old college roommate (we saw the Ballard locks (lox?) with jumping salmon).
Watching salmon jump is much like watching for shooting stars. You stare and stare, waiting for something to happen, and maybe you just barely catch a glimpse of a blurry tail end, but once in a while your eyes happen to be pointed in the right direction at the right time, and you see something glorious that makes you want to keep staring. Last week, after stuffing ourselves with Spanish tapas for a late dinner, we drove out to Concord with Irene's lab in the middle of the night to see the Geminid meteor shower. There was snow on the ground and our toes were freezing, but we all stayed out for more than two hours before staggering happily back to the cars.
In San Diego we saw the opening night of Madama Butterfly, in which Irene's mom made her debut as Butterfly's mother.
In Maine, we saw a great whale watch (including leaping humpbacks) and explored the slippery tidepools with Mike's family.
In other news, Mike's contract at Lesley University was renewed and the first papers from Irene's lab are in progress.
However, at the forefront of our minds nowadays are all the improvements to the house! Warning: the following section may be boring to those who have not previously seen the house. Those who have seen the house in the past may be astonished. :)
(We live on the right side.)
The greatest change is a brand new bathroom (replacing a pantry). Here is the cutest part:
We also renovated the guest room (come visit us!), and we can vouch for its coziness since we are actually staying there for a few days while working on the downstairs bedroom.
The upstairs bathroom got a fresh coat,
and Irene's study was painted to match her Return of the Jedi poster.
The kitchen is under consideration, and has been painted and slightly remodeled so far.
It's no longer a bachelor kitchen, as Mike ruefully observed (the trim color is "rose valley"). However, the basement retains its character despite a pedicure.
To bring us up to date, Mike currently wields the spackle as part of the bedroom facelift
and has enlisted Irene for painting tomorrow (get ready for 'polar drift' - strangely appropriate since we're scheduled for a major blizzard).
In Better, a book about performance from a surgeon's perspective, Atul Gawande recommends to start writing even if it's just a blog. While writing this, we realized that our most memorable moments this year were times we spent with you. Stay in touch, and we hope you have a relaxing holiday!
Best wishes for the new year from our cozy corner of Cambridge,
Mike & Irene
Dear friends and family,
Fortunately we're not going to tell you what we think of Star Trek, but instead we are sending you more hugs through this multimedia letter!
This was a noteworthy year for us. We got married (a big thank you to everyone who traveled to Cambridge),
and Mike got his PhD (animal communication; the thesis was 250 pages, not that we're counting).
We are pooped from all the traveling! There was Italy (Irene taught a summer school class in Rome, and we swung by Perugia, Modena, and Trento. Irene dragged Mike to Venice. Okay, it was a tourist trap, but it was also very unique - no cars!),
Spain, actually twice (beachfront conferences, one in Sant Feliu near Barcelona and one in Mallorca),
Guyana (Mike brought a class there to learn about tropical ecology; they all survived),
and Munich, Germany, (sorry, no pictures, we drank too much beer).
Back in the US, we looped around the states a bit. In Seattle we celebrated our friend's wedding and visited an old college roommate (we saw the Ballard locks (lox?) with jumping salmon).
Watching salmon jump is much like watching for shooting stars. You stare and stare, waiting for something to happen, and maybe you just barely catch a glimpse of a blurry tail end, but once in a while your eyes happen to be pointed in the right direction at the right time, and you see something glorious that makes you want to keep staring. Last week, after stuffing ourselves with Spanish tapas for a late dinner, we drove out to Concord with Irene's lab in the middle of the night to see the Geminid meteor shower. There was snow on the ground and our toes were freezing, but we all stayed out for more than two hours before staggering happily back to the cars.
In San Diego we saw the opening night of Madama Butterfly, in which Irene's mom made her debut as Butterfly's mother.
In Maine, we saw a great whale watch (including leaping humpbacks) and explored the slippery tidepools with Mike's family.
In other news, Mike's contract at Lesley University was renewed and the first papers from Irene's lab are in progress.
However, at the forefront of our minds nowadays are all the improvements to the house! Warning: the following section may be boring to those who have not previously seen the house. Those who have seen the house in the past may be astonished. :)
(We live on the right side.)
The greatest change is a brand new bathroom (replacing a pantry). Here is the cutest part:
We also renovated the guest room (come visit us!), and we can vouch for its coziness since we are actually staying there for a few days while working on the downstairs bedroom.
The upstairs bathroom got a fresh coat,
and Irene's study was painted to match her Return of the Jedi poster.
The kitchen is under consideration, and has been painted and slightly remodeled so far.
It's no longer a bachelor kitchen, as Mike ruefully observed (the trim color is "rose valley"). However, the basement retains its character despite a pedicure.
To bring us up to date, Mike currently wields the spackle as part of the bedroom facelift
and has enlisted Irene for painting tomorrow (get ready for 'polar drift' - strangely appropriate since we're scheduled for a major blizzard).
In Better, a book about performance from a surgeon's perspective, Atul Gawande recommends to start writing even if it's just a blog. While writing this, we realized that our most memorable moments this year were times we spent with you. Stay in touch, and we hope you have a relaxing holiday!
Best wishes for the new year from our cozy corner of Cambridge,
Mike & Irene
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