This year I decided that even poor graduate students (the worst people in the world according to Ms. Fey) deserve a proper Christmas tree. Tim toted it (and several other trees that I interviewed) all around Home Depot and managed to stuff it in the backseat of his car before carrying it up the narrow stairs to my apartment. And he helped decorate it, but would not admit to it if asked. 
Is your tree up?
I often don't respond to tags and such, but I can't say no to my niece Sarah, who has asked that I come up with 27 things I'm grateful for today (Thanksgiving). When I didn't respond right away, she quipped, "What? Are you seriously, so unblessed?" Indeed I am not.
I, Laura, having been born of goodly parents, was unfortunately not born with significant creative juices (or a love of what I consider a morbid holiday) and dressed as a witch for Halloween. Tim decided to dress as Mormon missionaries on account of the fact that he is approached by them (and missionaries from other faiths) on an almost hourly basis. I thought he was exaggerating until I started hanging out with him regularly. I've never seen so many in my life (or noticed how adorable and young they look). He decided that if he can't beat them, he may as well join the ranks. He claims that only Mormons and engineers wear short-sleeved, white dress shirts. Is that true?
My Halloween fun consisted of hanging out with my fellow graduate students. Several of us live in Somerville so we went to each of our houses for treats. I served peanut butter bars and (it seemed like a good idea at the time) deviled eggs. Get it? Deviled = scary = halloween spirt = non-stick-in-the-mud. Hmph. Left to right, top to bottom: Sarah Palin, Steve Urkel, a cell sorter (science joke), a monkey escaped from our bioterrorism lab, a pirate, and 1/2 of Spy vs. Spy.
Erin and Robby were pirates. Because this blog is read by children and my grandmother, I had to censor out her awesome rose tatoo.
(AP) Boston, MA -- The eighth annual BAA half-not-whole marathon was held Sunday, October 12, 2008. The men’s and women’s divisions were expected to be won by Kenyans and Ethiopians with legs tall enough to hurdle the Hancock building; however, many eyes were on Utah native Laura Dickey, who was signed up by her friend Tim and had undergone a rigorous training schedule of running around and around and around a small, local pond. It was unclear whether Dickey would make it past the 3-mile marker.
At the 7-mile mark, Dickey remembered some inspirational speeches from her EFY past, and decided to think positively and visualize. At mile 8, she managed to pass a few people, including an obviously pregnant woman and a man walking his dog. In the opposite direction. With newfound confidence, she triumphantly ran on, but stopped at mile 12 so that Tim’s nephews could give him high-fives and show off their home-made signs and t-shirts. The team stumbled across the finish line victoriously after 2 hours and 19 minutes, in impressive 3207th and 3208th places. When swarming reporters asked them how they felt, Tim said, “I’m experiencing tronchanteric bursitis complications, as well as a small degree of gastrointestinal distress.” Dickey did not stick around to comment and was last seen pushing people out of the port-o-john line.
My friend Tim surprised me with 3rd-row! tickets to see the goddess called Dar Williams as an early birthday present. The concert was in Great Barrington, MA; a charming little town in the Berkshires that seemed to be full of pretentious, quasi-environmentalists. Dar was fabulous and since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to climb Mt. Greylock (highest mountain in Massachusetts).
This is the peak of Mt. Greylock - a whopping 3,491 feet above sea level. Don't laugh, Utahns - it was a difficult hike; particularly carrying 50-lb packs.
The cute little old man at the trailhead who worked for the state forest service told us we would have to "skip" across a few brooks and streams. Tim did his best to comply.
A little waterfall we accidentally found when we lost the trail.
Home for the night. The forest service was kind enough to build tent platforms for those of us with wanderlusting souls.
I cannot tell you how severely I've been made fun of by the subject of this photo on account of my headlamp-wearing tendencies. "Nerdy," he said. "Geeky," he said. Then he up and bought a Petz at REI one afternoon. "I may as well look as ridiculous as you," he said.
This is my backpack (Gregory Diva). I am in love with it, of course, but I'm already engaged to my pullover.
Tim isn't exactly in favor of having his photo taken, but was a relatively good sport and smiled for approximately 10% of the pictures.
He is not posing here - he is patiently waiting for me to come off the mountain (he's a bit faster than I).
David and Lynette Dickey are relieved to announce the marriage of their daughter
Laura Leigh
to
Polartec Stretch Pullover
son of Recreational Equipment Inc. The couple met in Boston and fell madly in love while backpacking in the Berkshires.
Though the bride-to-be has courted many warm pullovers in the past, none offered the softness and flexibility that she longed for.
The happy couple will reside in Boston, MA until Ms. Dickey fails her qualifying exams again, at which point they will live in a tent in her mother's backyard. No formal reception will be held.
I did not burn the rolls.
I did not burn the chicken.
I did not burn the cake, and I did not burn the jello (data not shown).
D'oh!
My (cute) friend Michelle and I spent last weekend in Maine, where you can drive miles and miles without seeing anybody, there are beautiful views of hills, fields, and oceans everywhere you look, and there are these nifty inventions called lightswitches let's see... just exactly where you expect them to be. We went up for a Brandi Carlile concert that was held at the LL Bean Outlet in Freeport. Brandi sang most of our favorite songs, as well as Johnny Cash, CCR, and Jeff Buckley covers that rivaled the originals. We happily stood through 2 hours of rain to hear her, the twins, and the much-loved Cello Boy, and weren't disappointed - one of the best concerts I've ever been to.
After we staked out a place on the lawn, we toured the outlet (since they were kind enough to provide a free concert). There were a lot of opportunities for indoor nature shots, but I didn't get one in the famous aquarium since I hadn't the heart to shove all the four- to six-year-olds out of the way.
This was my favorite lighthouse.
Have I mentioned that I like the ocean?
So if somebody had only told me how beautiful the Cornell campus and surrounding city (Ithaca) is, I would have taken their pleas (begging*, really) to attend and offers of full-ride scholarships more seriously. Oh well, USU is practically Ivy League.
There are three gorges that pass through the campus, and several bridges offering lovely views. Right through.
I was relieved to learn that Rachel (my boss) and I have similar conference philosophies: the human brain can only retain, digest, and assimilate so much information during a given day. We went to the talks we found interesting and enjoyed the wilderness-turned-institution-of-higher-learning during talks we spent less palatable. I walked around this lake (Beebe: right on the d&%* campus) and the neighboring river and falls several times (per day). Erin (who was not a huge fan of Ithaca) went to 16 hours of talks per day and scribbled furiously throughout them all. I’m pretty sure she did this just to make me look bad, but I can't prove it.
I was excited that our meals were included in the conference registration fee until it became clear that the food was comprised primarly of grease. Even the water. Here, Rachel, Sarah, and I are pretending to enjoy creamed corn on the cob. I didn't know it was possible either.
Erin presented a poster about her super dangerous mutant virus. I came to the conference san poster (horray!).
This is the lovely and severely underappreciated bouquet of wildflowers I picked for Erin on my last walk around Lake Beebe.
John is Erin's boss, and Sarah (the one who looks like she is of the feminine persuasion) is a British post-doc in my lab who enjoys the out of doors.
Ewan is a Scottish post-doc in Erin's lab who enjoys making fun of us.
You might think this doesn't look like Top Science, but you could be wrong. As far as you know, we spent the entire kayaking trip discussing polymerase interactions with host cell factors (especially if you are my boss Rachel).
As seen previously on Cami's blog, I took a day off of doing Top Science in order to be lazy with my sister and her posterity. We took our bikes to Plum Island beach, rode through some wilderness conservation areas, and then watched the waves crash on the sand. We tried to swim a bit, but there were strong undertows so we stayed close to the shore in response to those pesky 'will to live' pangs.
Calvin was deeply disturbed by the waves, and told me several times, "Laura, I don't like the ocean." He even let me sit very close to him and hold him - behavior that isn't generally tolerated during less oceany times.
Cami and I are a little, shall we say... morbid, and have a tradition of taking photos of ourselves walking into the ocean al a Edna in Awakenings (right before she drowns herself).
