What a semester! My first semester in grad school has been one of the most all-consuming experiences of my life! Combine that with the joy and stress of buying and moving into a new house, and you've got one gal with a lot on her plate!
The new house is awesome! We've had a lot of fun so far working on our plans for fixing it up and doing some of those things. Before we moved in, we pulled up the carpets to show off the great hardwood floors beneath. Andrew's dream came true, and now we have a nice big pot rack in the kitchen, which is incredibly useful in addition to looking cool. We've really enjoyed the fireplace since it's gotten colder. Best of all, we just got central heat and air for Christmas! The only drawback of this house was its old funky floor furnaces, and the one in our room doesn't work. So now, no shivering away all winter with those! And we get to take out the window units, which will improve the overall look of the house. Many more plans to come…
This semester at school, I took Plant Ecology and Stats I, along with some research hours. Plant Ecology was co-taught by my advisor, Dr. Pezeshki, so there was a lot of pressure on me to do well in the class. Stats should have been a great class, but I got the worst teacher in the business. I'm talking about both of his classes filing complaints and grade appeals B-A-D! So what should have been a fairly easy review of and introduction to statistics was the source of major anxiety throughout the semester. Not to mention it was on Saturdays from 9am -12pm. Ugh. But all that's over now! I got my unofficial grades, and I did great in Plant Ecology and passed Stats. I'm definitely getting in on the mass grade appeal, since I helped instigate it.
Next semester, I'm taking Soil Ecology, also co-taught by Dr. Pezeshki, and Stats II. I got into the Stats II class with the very well-regarded department chair, and I'm really looking forward to learning something this time, not just struggling to put the pieces together for myself. I'll also be taking more research hours and teaching at least 2 labs.
Teaching was quite the experience. Going into it, I was really worried that no one (i.e. my students) would take me seriously. My fear of this was quickly laid to rest on the first day when my mastery of the ideas of homozygous and heterozygous genotypes and phenotypes and dominant and recessive alleles and how all this could easily be represented by yellow and red beads allowed for some credibility among the mostly lost non-majors. One TA (teaching assistant) dropped out due to medical reasons, and I was asked to pick up one for her sections after about a month into classes. So, I wound up teaching 3 sections, which worked out quite nicely.
As a teacher, I had to make many decisions that I hadn't even considered I would be responsible for. For example, when the University of Memphis was closed on a Monday following an on-campus shooting Sunday night, that was the day my extra lab was supposed to meet and get the mid-term exam review and ask questions about the test, etc. I attempted to email everyone in the class a reminder about the exam next week and a review, but since I'm a TA and not the actual "instructor of record", I don't have a master email list for the class. So I was unable to track down email addresses for some folks, and they didn't get the reminders and reviews. Other email attempts bounced back.
At the next class meeting for the regularly scheduled mid-term exam, over half the class cried foul about having no idea that the exam would be that day since the university had been officially closed for an emergency, and some people didn't get the emails with the review. This was the class that I had picked up from the other TA who dropped, so when one student pointed out that they had had 3 teachers and then class canceled due to a school shooting and couldn't I just cut them some slack, I made a snap decision that I hadn't even considered. Instead of handing out the stack of exams in my hand like I had been set on doing, even though I felt rather conflicted over their situation already, I found myself saying, "Well, alright. When can we schedule a make-up?" What? I now was committing myself to coming in on my own time for 2 days at 3 hours each to sit in the undergraduate study lounge and give a mid-term makeup to my misfit section. That wasn't in the script, but that's how it went down. I made Andrew quit calling me a push-over, and we compromised on "Lyndsay: the light touch for fairness." Um, okay. But that's just one extreme example of the kind of decision-making I was responsible for that I never thought I would be handling as a graduate teaching assistant.
A month after classes began, I embarked on a research trip to southern Louisiana with 4 Japanese researchers to study the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the vegetation, particularly bald cypress trees. Dr. Yamamoto and his protégé, Fumiko, are tree physiologists who specialize in bald cypress. Dr. Nagasawa and his protégé, Yukihiro, are GIS and remote-sensing specialists who were ground-truthing their remote-sensing data, which they used to tell which areas where the vegetation was the most impacted by the hurricane and which areas were recovering slowly after the damage. Sam, a PhD candidate in Dr. Pezeshki's lab, had gone the year before with Dr. Yamamoto and Fumiko, to collect some preliminary data, and he was along for this trip as well.
The lead-up to the trip was really hectic, with Dr. Yamamoto and Fumiko being on a later plane that planned due to some connection delay, but I didn't know that when I was at the airport trying to pick them up. Once they arrived, there were 2 or 3 days of intense entertaining leading up to our departure, including a dinner at Dr. Pezeshki's house, which was cool.
We flew into New Orleans and met Dr. Nagasawa and Yukihiro, who were flying direct from Tokyo. We rented a suburban at the airport and then headed out to the LSU Forestry field station in Bogalusa. This place was the epitome of cool, with all the amenities we could hope for, including a full kitchen, a ping –pong table, and free laundry. This was our base of operations for 3 days while we drove all around taking in the particular culture of rural southern Louisiana by day and drinking lots of Abita beer by night. All this was fine by Sam and I since it was out in the woods, which is nice, and the price was certainly right, which was free for visiting researchers. But on the third evening, the Japanese abruptly decided that they would like to move accommodations the next day to the French Quarter to experience some of New Orleans' charms.
We moved to the Hotel St. Marie on Toulouse and Bourbon the next day. Work was put on hold for the day for the transition. We spent that afternoon and evening drinking beer on the balcony, until Sam enticed the Japanese to check out some of the town's exotic entertainment at the topless clubs. I stayed at the hotel to work on Stats homework, but the Japanese were most impressed from what I heard.
We spent the next 4 nights in the Quarter. We made multiple visits to Café Du Monde for beignets and frozen lattes. We ate at a bunch of cool places and saw jazz bands at Preservation Hall and the Maison Bourbon. On our last night, Sam and I went running around the Quarter with Sam's local friend, Brandy, who was an excellent and entertaining hostess. We played pool at locals bar Fey-Hey's and then went to 80's dance night at One-Eyed Jack's. Who knew research could be so fun?
It was impressive to see the resilience of the city's residents, and it was clear that, in the Quarter, things were back on track after the hurricane. In the suburbs around the city, things were a different story. We saw amazing amounts of devastation in both scope and magnitude. It was incredible to think about what folks' lives must be like out there in those subdivisions, among boarded-up, abandoned houses, which comprised the majority of the buildings, with FEMA trailer interspersed in front of some of the houses undergoing renovation. While there were some signs of life out there, mostly it was a sea of decay. It was truly painfully heart-wrenching to take in at times.
Data collection for this gig was an interesting experience. The remote-sensing guys had the backseat of the suburban all wired with laptops, inverters, GPS sensors, and they collected data as we drove around by taking photographs with a GIS camera out of the window of the moving vehicle. If a spot was of particular interest or not easy to see from the car, we'd get out and walk around. During the last two days, we finally got to do some mucking around with Dr. Yamamoto and Fumiko. I got mired for awhile in the swamp muck, got covered in duckweed (i.e. pond scum) both in and out of my clothes, and I crawled through nutria excrement. But I did get to take a couple of the core samples from bald cypress trees, which was really cool. You use a small auger to drill through the center of the tree trunk at breast height. Then you pull the long thin strip of trunk out of a hollow part in the auger. This strip then gets covered with a plastic drinking straw, until it's examined later for variation among the rings. Neato.
On our last day there, we all went on a guided swamp tour. Now that was cool. Our guide showed us some very lovely sections of swamp and delivered up wild alligators, to my utter delight. We saw turtles and snakes, majestic cypress with Spanish moss drifting from their branches, a huge great blue heron, and a house that had floated miles from its foundation when it got carried off by the post-hurricane storm surge. The swamp was absolutely captivating, and I could see why people trade in their 9 to 5 to become a permanent part of the life there.
So that was a great way to kick off the first month of grad school. On my return, I had to give a lot of attention to my Plant Ecology class project, for which I was required to do an experiment, a 10-minute presentation about it, and write it all up as a scientific manuscript. Great, I thought. This would be the perfect time to do a pilot study of a smaller version of the main experiment I'm planning on doing for my thesis. And maybe this would have be the perfect time to do that pilot study, but it was not meant to be so.
I intended to use a species of grass that we had growing at the greenhouse as the plant I would experiment on. When I tried dividing this otherwise hardy plant into sections to be experimented on, they all died. Next, I went to collect another grass species being studied in our lab from some wild populations we had identified in the summer, but, when we went to dig them up in late August, they'd all died back or were well on their way to doing so. I checked around a couple more places locally for the second species, rice cutgrass, but no one had any. I called about 15 regional nurseries, and not one had either of the grasses. Finally, I found a nursery in Pennsylvania that sold the rice cutgrass, but it was going to cost $85 for the plants and shipping. I tried more local places, but I finally wound up ordering from the PA nursery.
After about a week, my plants arrived. Dead. Okay, completely brown and not dead, but in absolutely no condition for doing an experiment on. I thought that perhaps I could put them in the light room and restore them to green state for doing the experiment.
I'm getting nervous at this point and having this cartoon-like sensation of the pages of a calendar flying off into my face.
After a week in the light room, the rice cutgrass was infested with fungus and struggling more than ever. I needed a new experiment if I was going to have anything by the end of the semester. How about a germination experiment? Plant some seeds, and count how many that sprout after doing things to them. Perfect, and Sam had some seeds of a grass species that was an official release from a USDA Plant Materials Center that I could use. So, I design an experiment, do some treatments to the seeds, plant them, and set them up in the light room. Then I started reading about this species more in-depth, only to discover that these seeds require 4 to 6 weeks of soaking before they will germinate. It was far too late to expect that anything could possibly happen with these seeds by the time I needed them, so again I was casting about for another idea.
Sam suggested that I use some extra willow cuttings that he had, since nothing with the grasses had worked for me so far. And that did work. Well, actually the experiment was a failure in the sense that I didn't see a treatment effect for the parameters I measured. But I was able to carry it out and report my findings in the way that was expected of me. I even did well on the presentation and earned some praise from the generally tight-lipped Dr. Pezeshki.
All that equated to an incredibly consuming and frustrating experience that I guess is the sort I'm supposed to be having, developing my character or something like that. Supposedly all this "experience" will make my future attempts more fruitful, and I can only pray it's so or else I'm in the wrong line of work.
I did have an excellent semester, music-wise. I finally got to see the Disco Biscuits at the New Daisy and got to hang with many great friends I ran into there (what's up Dan and Kim, Andria, D.D., and Sam!). Then I scored a free ticket to the Black Crowes show at Mud Island. That was my first Mud Island show, and it's hard to imagine anything that could beat it. It was a beautiful fall night on the Mississippi River, fifth row center, with the Crowes on their hottest night I've gotten to see them on. I was there with friends Jason, Sean, and Anne, and instead of Andrew, who had to work instead of take advantage of the ridiculously awesome and free chance to see one of his favorite bands. Serendipitiously, I wound up hanging out with other friends Sam, Katie, Lewis, and Jennifer before and after the show, even though we didn't know we were all going to the show until I ran into them in the parking garage on my way in.
Since he had missed the Crowes show, I had to understand when Andrew bought tickets somewhat impulsively to the Neil Young show in St. Louis. It was right before Thanksgiving, and we would have to be apart for the holiday because I was going to Kentucky, and he had to work. So we made a little escape out of it. We scored big-time on Priceline and got a 4-star hotel for $65 that turned out to be in the renovated historic and resplendent Union Station, which was rather close to the equally historic and resplendent Fox Theatre. Thank you, William Shatner, we had a great time.
The show was ridiculous. Our seats were great, and the venue was breath-taking. We had seen Neil at Bonnaroo the year he was there (Andrew's seen him bunches), so I had some idea what I was in for, but, then again, really I didn't. His wife, Pegi Young, opened, playing some nice acoustic songs from her new album, her first solo in a long career of singing back-up for Neil. Then Neil came on, by himself, with an acoustic set of songs on guitar, harmonica, and piano. Tears started streaming down my cheeks at the first chord of the song he opened with, "From Hank to Hendrix." The whole set was so intense. I just grinned, and my eyes leaked the whole time. After that set, he came out with the band and played a great electric set. He's quite the hard-rocking old fella.
Andrew also couldn't resist the mystery of the new Blind Melon lineup, and so we went to see them last week at the Gibson Lounge. I'm not fanatical about their music, like, say, Andrew. But I wasn't too sure how to interpret the idea that the band was soldiering on without deceased lead singer, Shannon Hoon. Was it just a commercial motive to sell the name while some people still remembered them? Maybe, but they did a great job anyway. The new singer wasn't trying to reinvent their sound and did an excellent job delivering the lyrics in a very long shadow, and the show rocked. I don't know when I last saw Andrew have so much fun at a show, and that made it even better.
The most heart-warming musical experience of late, by far, had to be Madison's strings recital a couple of weeks ago. Students in the fifth grade strings program performed several holiday classics in the "pizzicato" style of plucking the strings. It was too cool to see Maddie plucking on her violin, making music with the rest of the group. I was incredibly proud.
In there somewhere, I threw my best friend, Emily, a baby shower in Louisville. It was a bit of a challenge to pull that off from Memphis during the semester I had, but it all worked out with my mom's help. It was really fun to get to return the favor from when Emily threw my bridal shower. Her daughter, Eva, was born a couple of weeks ago and is stunningly cute (from what I could tell when I visited, but she was sleeping the whole time, so she's probably even cuter when awake).
Currently, we are all working on Christmas preparations. Andrew is a cookie baking machine, and I'm on baking support services. We put up the Christmas tree, and I got to decorate our mantel with garland, pinecones, and lights. We are the plain-janes on our street and haven't done up our house exterior as most folks have. We're doing well to do the tree thing, thank you. Anyway, we're not done shopping yet, so I've got to muster up a bit more of that commercial spirit, I mean, Christmas spirit before the last present is wrapped.
Madison gets out of school on Thursday. Andrew has to work Christmas morning, which is a bummer. Then, on the day after Christmas, Maddie and I are heading to Kentucky for a few days. We've visiting Mom, Carter, and Grandma for a day, and the Madison is off to visit her dad and stepmom (who are expecting a new addition to their family in May) and her half-brother, Connor. We're driving back on New Year's Eve, so I don't have any plans for then just yet, although something is likely to turn up.
Have a Safe and Happy Holiday Season!
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 12/18/07.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Monday, September 3, 2007
June/ July update
My, life has been exciting! Since my last update through the middle of June, many thrilling events have occurred. At the end of June, upon returning from Gulf Shores, I went with Madison to an awesome weight-loss camp in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was the an incredibly fun and empowering experience, not to mention I got to spend 12 days of quality time with Madison in the Michigan wilderness, playing and doing fun activities every day, including canoeing and a trip to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Lake Superior.
Upon returning from camp, I took Madison to visit her father's family in Kentucky and Indiana for just over 2 weeks. Her first stop was with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in New Haven, playing on the farm. She got to visit with my mom in there too, as well as spend the night with her best friend, Elizabeth, on her (Elizabeth's) birthday. Then she was off for a week with her dad at his new house he just bought in New Albany. Vacation Bible School was happening, with Jerry teaching a section, and her brother Connor was there visiting too the whole time. It sounded like a great visit from Maddie's account. She then went back to New Haven for a couple of days until I picked up her and her best friend, Elizabeth.
While Madison was off visiting her relations, my dad came to visit us in Memphis for a long weekend on the occasion of my birthday. We had a great visit, and he got to be here for the first walk-through of our new house (!!!!) Also, we visited the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum, hung out on Beale Street and caught some good music, went on a dinner boat cruise, and ate lots of barbeque. The fun ended on my birthday when my dad headed back to Va Bch and Andrew left on business trip to St. Louis for 5 days. I finished out my birthday by heading down to the Buccaneer to watch my friends in Groundspeak lay down the funky groove.
With everyone gone, I was planning on staying busy at the lab, and indeed I tried. But a missing meter required us to forego the planned day of sampling and subsequent days of sample processing and analysis. Given that my work plans for the week imploded by Wednesday morning and that my friends, Sam and Katie, were kind enough to watch Cuba and Delta, I did what anyone with no kid and husband 5 hours away, and I headed up to St. Louis to live large on Andrew's $35 per diem up in his Embassy Suites room in St. Louis. The plan was that I would hang out and read papers, which I planned on doing back in Memphis in lieu of fun sampling work, and Andrew would skip his early morning flight back to Memphis on Friday in order to visit a bit of St. Louis and then drive back with me.
On our site-seeing tour, we went to see the Scott Joplin House and then headed to The Hill, as the large Italian district of St. Louis is known. We grabbed some lunch at one place, some coffee at another, some Italian cookies and cheese at an importer grocery, then hit the mother-lode for Andrew, an authentic Italian bakery featuring many varieties of cookies. He had a blast replicating some of the Christmas dessert spreads he remembered from visiting his NYC relations. After a bit, we hit I-55 back to Memphis.
Just after getting back from St. Louis, Andrew and I went to see the Reverend Al Green at Live at the Garden, this groovy series of concerts put on at the Memphis Botanic Garden, about ½ a mile from our house. We met Andrew's sister, Kate, his cousin, Robert, and a couple of doctors, one of which is Madison's pediatrician. We had a lovely time eating and drinking while getting ready for the show. Then Al Green took the stage and blew us all away. We've seen a couple of living legends before, and this doesn't always guarantee a good show. But we forgot about all that and everything else during the time the Reverend was on the stage. It was easily on of my top 5 shows, and that ain't easy.
A day or so later, I went with Sam, a PhD student from my lab, to Jonesboro, Arkansas to visit the fancy agricultural ditches they have on the campus of ASU. We met the gracious and knowledgeable Dr. Farris, who showed us around the facilities they have there. These ditches are cool because the flow and water level can be manipulated, and they're paired with wetland cells. We are hoping to incorporate a coupla these ditches into the field study for next year. It was a great networking opportunity with folks who seem interested in what we're doing and in collaborating with us.
A couple of days later, I went to Kentucky to pick up Madison from New Haven and to bring back her best friend, Elizabeth, with us to spend 9 days in Memphis. I drove up, leaving at 7am, then met up with my mom, who showed me around the Hodgenville downtown renovation, which is really beginning to take shape. While walking around, we stopped in at the Lincoln Museum and Mom got me a cool Lincoln shirt. Then we went to pick up Madison from her New Haven family. Next we all went to Elizabethtown to do a bit more shopping, in honor of my birthday. We picked up Elizabeth, grabbed some dinner, and headed to Mom's. I packed up my car and helped solve Mom's computer issues, then I slept for a couple of hours before hitting the road again back to Memphis.
Since we've been back to Memphis with Elizabeth, we went to the zoo twice, toured the university campus en route to picking up some interlibrary loan articles, saw The Simpsons' Movie, visited the Children's Museum, went swimming at the YMCA several days, canoed a an 8 mile section of the Wolf River, and have generally enjoyed hanging out.
A couple of days ago, we signed a contract for a house about 3 blocks from us. It's the perfect starter home in the neighborhood we love, and all of us are thrilled! It has 2 bedrooms, one bathroom, living room, dining room, den, shed, a spacious attic with major potential, a great fenced-in backyard with several nice trees, a fireplace (!), with all appliances…move-in ready. It just couldn't be better. We close on August 10, while my mom in town that weekend, and she will be an awesome resource for our fixing-up efforts.
Somewhere in there, I signed my contract with the University, and it's official: they're really going to let me teach two sections of the lab for Intro to Biology! Don't they have some higher screening criteria or something?
Tomorrow, I'm headed back to Kentucky with Madison and Elizabeth, to drop off Elizabeth, spend the night with my mom, see some friends, and visit the LaRue County Fair with Mom. Then Maddie and I will head back on Sunday to begin packing.
Well, I guess that's it for now, and that's plenty.
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 09/03/07.
Upon returning from camp, I took Madison to visit her father's family in Kentucky and Indiana for just over 2 weeks. Her first stop was with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in New Haven, playing on the farm. She got to visit with my mom in there too, as well as spend the night with her best friend, Elizabeth, on her (Elizabeth's) birthday. Then she was off for a week with her dad at his new house he just bought in New Albany. Vacation Bible School was happening, with Jerry teaching a section, and her brother Connor was there visiting too the whole time. It sounded like a great visit from Maddie's account. She then went back to New Haven for a couple of days until I picked up her and her best friend, Elizabeth.
While Madison was off visiting her relations, my dad came to visit us in Memphis for a long weekend on the occasion of my birthday. We had a great visit, and he got to be here for the first walk-through of our new house (!!!!) Also, we visited the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum, hung out on Beale Street and caught some good music, went on a dinner boat cruise, and ate lots of barbeque. The fun ended on my birthday when my dad headed back to Va Bch and Andrew left on business trip to St. Louis for 5 days. I finished out my birthday by heading down to the Buccaneer to watch my friends in Groundspeak lay down the funky groove.
With everyone gone, I was planning on staying busy at the lab, and indeed I tried. But a missing meter required us to forego the planned day of sampling and subsequent days of sample processing and analysis. Given that my work plans for the week imploded by Wednesday morning and that my friends, Sam and Katie, were kind enough to watch Cuba and Delta, I did what anyone with no kid and husband 5 hours away, and I headed up to St. Louis to live large on Andrew's $35 per diem up in his Embassy Suites room in St. Louis. The plan was that I would hang out and read papers, which I planned on doing back in Memphis in lieu of fun sampling work, and Andrew would skip his early morning flight back to Memphis on Friday in order to visit a bit of St. Louis and then drive back with me.
On our site-seeing tour, we went to see the Scott Joplin House and then headed to The Hill, as the large Italian district of St. Louis is known. We grabbed some lunch at one place, some coffee at another, some Italian cookies and cheese at an importer grocery, then hit the mother-lode for Andrew, an authentic Italian bakery featuring many varieties of cookies. He had a blast replicating some of the Christmas dessert spreads he remembered from visiting his NYC relations. After a bit, we hit I-55 back to Memphis.
Just after getting back from St. Louis, Andrew and I went to see the Reverend Al Green at Live at the Garden, this groovy series of concerts put on at the Memphis Botanic Garden, about ½ a mile from our house. We met Andrew's sister, Kate, his cousin, Robert, and a couple of doctors, one of which is Madison's pediatrician. We had a lovely time eating and drinking while getting ready for the show. Then Al Green took the stage and blew us all away. We've seen a couple of living legends before, and this doesn't always guarantee a good show. But we forgot about all that and everything else during the time the Reverend was on the stage. It was easily on of my top 5 shows, and that ain't easy.
A day or so later, I went with Sam, a PhD student from my lab, to Jonesboro, Arkansas to visit the fancy agricultural ditches they have on the campus of ASU. We met the gracious and knowledgeable Dr. Farris, who showed us around the facilities they have there. These ditches are cool because the flow and water level can be manipulated, and they're paired with wetland cells. We are hoping to incorporate a coupla these ditches into the field study for next year. It was a great networking opportunity with folks who seem interested in what we're doing and in collaborating with us.
A couple of days later, I went to Kentucky to pick up Madison from New Haven and to bring back her best friend, Elizabeth, with us to spend 9 days in Memphis. I drove up, leaving at 7am, then met up with my mom, who showed me around the Hodgenville downtown renovation, which is really beginning to take shape. While walking around, we stopped in at the Lincoln Museum and Mom got me a cool Lincoln shirt. Then we went to pick up Madison from her New Haven family. Next we all went to Elizabethtown to do a bit more shopping, in honor of my birthday. We picked up Elizabeth, grabbed some dinner, and headed to Mom's. I packed up my car and helped solve Mom's computer issues, then I slept for a couple of hours before hitting the road again back to Memphis.
Since we've been back to Memphis with Elizabeth, we went to the zoo twice, toured the university campus en route to picking up some interlibrary loan articles, saw The Simpsons' Movie, visited the Children's Museum, went swimming at the YMCA several days, canoed a an 8 mile section of the Wolf River, and have generally enjoyed hanging out.
A couple of days ago, we signed a contract for a house about 3 blocks from us. It's the perfect starter home in the neighborhood we love, and all of us are thrilled! It has 2 bedrooms, one bathroom, living room, dining room, den, shed, a spacious attic with major potential, a great fenced-in backyard with several nice trees, a fireplace (!), with all appliances…move-in ready. It just couldn't be better. We close on August 10, while my mom in town that weekend, and she will be an awesome resource for our fixing-up efforts.
Somewhere in there, I signed my contract with the University, and it's official: they're really going to let me teach two sections of the lab for Intro to Biology! Don't they have some higher screening criteria or something?
Tomorrow, I'm headed back to Kentucky with Madison and Elizabeth, to drop off Elizabeth, spend the night with my mom, see some friends, and visit the LaRue County Fair with Mom. Then Maddie and I will head back on Sunday to begin packing.
Well, I guess that's it for now, and that's plenty.
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 09/03/07.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Pictures
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| Faulkner's typewriter, Rowan Oak, Oxford, Mississippi |
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| Outline for A Fable, Rowan Oak, Oxford, Mississippi |
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| Besthoff Sculpture Garden, New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| Besthoff Sculpture Garden, New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| Besthoff Sculpture Garden, New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| Besthoff Sculpture Garden, New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| Besthoff Sculpture Garden, New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| Besthoff Sculpture Garden, New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| Besthoff Sculpture Garden, New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| Besthoff Sculpture Garden, New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| Cafe du Monde, New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| Pirate's Alley, New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| The kiddo playing at the beach house, Gulf Shores, Alabama |
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| Dinner! Gulf Shores, Alabama |
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| Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, Gulf Shores, Alabama |
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| Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, Gulf Shores, Alabama |
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| Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, Gulf Shores, Alabama |
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| Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, Gulf Shores, Alabama |
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| The former Saunders beach house, Gulf Shores, Alabama |
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| The lagoon lot without the dock or dockhouse, Gulf Shores, Alabama |
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| Sunset at the lagoon, Gulf Shores, Alabama |
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| Alligator Alley, Summerville, Alabama |
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| The Story, Alligator Alley, Summerville, Alabama |
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| Captain Crunch, Alligator Alley, Summerville, Alabama |
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| Alligator Alley, Summerville, Alabama |
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| Clear Lake, Upper Pennisula, Michigan |
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| Clear Lake, Upper Pennisula, Michigan |
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| Clear Lake, Upper Pennisula, Michigan |
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| The campers canoeing together at the closing ceremony, Clear Lake, Upper Pennisula, Michigan |
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| A dinner cruise duing Dad's visit to Memphis... |
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| ...during which Andrew got some great shots of sunset over the Mississippi... |
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| ...and the Memphis skyline |
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| Dad on Beale Street |
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Family vacation 2007 (6/7 - 6/15)
We left on Thursday from Memphis, heading down to Oxford, MS to visit Rowan Oak, former residence of William Faulkner. While Madison and Andrew were less enthusiastic about the part of the adventure (Andrew views Faulkner mainly as a charlatan with some skill with dialects, and Madison only knew what we told her on the ride down about his contributions to the canon of American literature for which he won a Nobel prize), I was totally stoked, since I'd been wanting to visit there since we moved to such close proximity.
The house was very well-preserved and contained many personal items from Faulkner's life. Even Madison was impressed with the grease pencil outline of A Fable on the walls of the study. We were allowed to amble around the grounds which were quite peaceful. Leading from the house was a walkway lined with huge cedars and led to an interesting circle garden. We had some time to kill, so we took a stroll aways down a path into "Bailey's Woods." After a bit, we were back in the car, headed to Jackson, MS, our overnight destination. We hit a Motel 6 and let Madison swim and went to dinner, then hit the hay pretty early. Our plan was to rise the next day and head down to New Orleans to see what we could in a few daylight hours.
On Friday, we rolled out of Jackson a little earlier than Andrew would have preferred, and headed down I55. We arrived in the city in the early afternoon and set out to find the City Park, which contained the Besthoff Sculpture Garden, adjacent to the New Orleans Museum of Art. The Sculpture Garden greatly exceeded our expectations, and, although I had tagged this stop as a free activity, we gladly threw in $10 in the "Donations Accepted" jar.
It was my intent that, from the City Park, we cruise the Garden District in car, which is just what we managed to do with one vague map and Andrew's instincts. After ogling the lovely homes in the Garden District (which reminded Maddie and me of Charleston), we turned our attention to the that fabled place, the French Quarter, or, in the old local French vernacular, the Vieux Carré. We parked somewhere and started walking towards Jackson Square. We stood briefly on Bourbon Street, then found a great spot for lunch in the Pontalba Building, right off the square. We admired the architecture of the buildings and St. Andrew's Cathedral and people-watched. Then we strolled around the square and through. An afternoon thunderstorm was quickly making its way in, so we headed back to the car by way of Pirates Alley.
On our way into the city from the north, we didn't observe too much devastation. Within the city, you could see where some places were messed up and other places were getting fixed. Leaving the city going northeast to Mobile was a different story. It was like a ghost town for miles and miles. We saw so many empty houses, whether apartment buildings or nice suburban homes. We saw many blue-tarped roofs and trailers parked in front of houses and a FEMA trailer park. Unreal.
We made our way to Mobile to spend the night and give Maddie some more motel pool time. Then the next morning, we headed into Gulf Shores to check into our beach house and meet up with our friends.
We met our friend Thomas first, and he checked with us. The Beckham family arrived a couple of hours later. After some initial confusion about an undisclosed caretaker's house 30 ft behind our house, it was decided that everyone, including caretaker Bob, was going to live and let live. There was also a problem with the number of beds (we thought there were 3 beds in one room for the kids, but they remodeled and didn't update the internet info), but the real estate company worked that that out with air mattresses, and everyone was happy.
It would be silly to do a day-by-day breakdown of our activities during the week. The weather was great, the kids swam, the men fished, Andrew cooked, I bartended, the Beckhams majorly helped with the kids, Thomas tended the crab traps...good times in all. The guys and kids went to a go-cart amusement park place one day, while Janice and I went to Alligator Alley (the coolest place ever). I went to Bon Secour Wildlife Preserve early one morning with JBz. We ate crabs we caught from the lagoon one night and went out for a seafood feast another night. In all, it couldn't have been a more pleasant and chilled out time. I never could bring myself to venture over to the old Saunders beach house, but Andrew retrieved several cool artifacts from there.
The drive back was a bit rough, with me driving and Andrew sleeping in preparation for work at 2:30am Saturday morning. We ran through some major rain and wind between Hattiesburg and Jackson. But we made it, and Andrew went to work, and now we all are getting back into our regular routines.
Madison and I, however, will be leaving on Sunday to head to Manistique, MI for 2 weeks of camp fun. We've been shopping for all our supplies and are nearly done. What a bunch of stuff, and I am not in to shopping at all. We've managed though, with Vicki's help, and today we UPSed our bedding up there so it won't take up space in our airline luggage. We are getting quite excited!
Eventually, I'll post some vacation pictures, maybe along with some from the Upper Peninsula.
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 06/20/07.
The house was very well-preserved and contained many personal items from Faulkner's life. Even Madison was impressed with the grease pencil outline of A Fable on the walls of the study. We were allowed to amble around the grounds which were quite peaceful. Leading from the house was a walkway lined with huge cedars and led to an interesting circle garden. We had some time to kill, so we took a stroll aways down a path into "Bailey's Woods." After a bit, we were back in the car, headed to Jackson, MS, our overnight destination. We hit a Motel 6 and let Madison swim and went to dinner, then hit the hay pretty early. Our plan was to rise the next day and head down to New Orleans to see what we could in a few daylight hours.
On Friday, we rolled out of Jackson a little earlier than Andrew would have preferred, and headed down I55. We arrived in the city in the early afternoon and set out to find the City Park, which contained the Besthoff Sculpture Garden, adjacent to the New Orleans Museum of Art. The Sculpture Garden greatly exceeded our expectations, and, although I had tagged this stop as a free activity, we gladly threw in $10 in the "Donations Accepted" jar.
It was my intent that, from the City Park, we cruise the Garden District in car, which is just what we managed to do with one vague map and Andrew's instincts. After ogling the lovely homes in the Garden District (which reminded Maddie and me of Charleston), we turned our attention to the that fabled place, the French Quarter, or, in the old local French vernacular, the Vieux Carré. We parked somewhere and started walking towards Jackson Square. We stood briefly on Bourbon Street, then found a great spot for lunch in the Pontalba Building, right off the square. We admired the architecture of the buildings and St. Andrew's Cathedral and people-watched. Then we strolled around the square and through. An afternoon thunderstorm was quickly making its way in, so we headed back to the car by way of Pirates Alley.
On our way into the city from the north, we didn't observe too much devastation. Within the city, you could see where some places were messed up and other places were getting fixed. Leaving the city going northeast to Mobile was a different story. It was like a ghost town for miles and miles. We saw so many empty houses, whether apartment buildings or nice suburban homes. We saw many blue-tarped roofs and trailers parked in front of houses and a FEMA trailer park. Unreal.
We made our way to Mobile to spend the night and give Maddie some more motel pool time. Then the next morning, we headed into Gulf Shores to check into our beach house and meet up with our friends.
We met our friend Thomas first, and he checked with us. The Beckham family arrived a couple of hours later. After some initial confusion about an undisclosed caretaker's house 30 ft behind our house, it was decided that everyone, including caretaker Bob, was going to live and let live. There was also a problem with the number of beds (we thought there were 3 beds in one room for the kids, but they remodeled and didn't update the internet info), but the real estate company worked that that out with air mattresses, and everyone was happy.
It would be silly to do a day-by-day breakdown of our activities during the week. The weather was great, the kids swam, the men fished, Andrew cooked, I bartended, the Beckhams majorly helped with the kids, Thomas tended the crab traps...good times in all. The guys and kids went to a go-cart amusement park place one day, while Janice and I went to Alligator Alley (the coolest place ever). I went to Bon Secour Wildlife Preserve early one morning with JBz. We ate crabs we caught from the lagoon one night and went out for a seafood feast another night. In all, it couldn't have been a more pleasant and chilled out time. I never could bring myself to venture over to the old Saunders beach house, but Andrew retrieved several cool artifacts from there.
The drive back was a bit rough, with me driving and Andrew sleeping in preparation for work at 2:30am Saturday morning. We ran through some major rain and wind between Hattiesburg and Jackson. But we made it, and Andrew went to work, and now we all are getting back into our regular routines.
Madison and I, however, will be leaving on Sunday to head to Manistique, MI for 2 weeks of camp fun. We've been shopping for all our supplies and are nearly done. What a bunch of stuff, and I am not in to shopping at all. We've managed though, with Vicki's help, and today we UPSed our bedding up there so it won't take up space in our airline luggage. We are getting quite excited!
Eventually, I'll post some vacation pictures, maybe along with some from the Upper Peninsula.
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 06/20/07.
Monday, June 4, 2007
May in review
May started out in a big way with the Memphis in May Music Festival. Andrew and I went all 3 days, saw some great bands, and ran into many friends there. Favorite performances included the North Mississippi All-Stars, Gov't Mule, The Ohio Players, and Steely Dan. The weekend was much improved when we scored bracelets to the Memphis Flyer (the local independent weekly newspaper) VIP tent, granting us access to free water, beer, barbeque, and separate portapotties (many thanks to Mike and Jason!). That, along with some Jello shooters in a cooler back in the car truck, made for an intoxicatingly enjoyable time on Friday and Saturday. We took Madison down on Sunday, but the crowd was extra thick, and she was marginally impressed with the bluesman Watermelon Slim. So she was ready to head pretty quickly after a corndog (around here called a "Pronto Pup", which has become Delta's nickname) and souvenir purse. All in all, it was quite the fun time, even though I didn't get to catch Three Six Mafia.
The next weekend, Madison, Delta, and I went to Kentucky, so she could visit Jerry and company. I spent some time hanging out with Emily on Friday. Then, on Saturday, Mom and I went running around several counties, from Munfordville to Greensburg to Campbellsville and back to Hodgenville. On Sunday, Mom and I ate Mother's Day brunch at Moma Sond's on Hodgenville's main street. We were met there by our pal, CE, another ex-Hodgenville rebel. He drank coffee, and we ate to bursting. We got our desserts to go, along with a piece of chocolate merguine pie for Great (my grandma), told CE bye, and headed to Great's. We had our dessert and did a tour of her garden. After visiting for a bit, I went to pick up Madison in Louisville. She had a marigold for me and a neat card she had made in Sunday school. We stopped back by Mom's on our way out of town to collect Delta and our stuff, then journeyed the 5 hours back to Memphis.
Somewhere in there, Madison and I attempted to go for a bike ride one afternoon. Immediately after leaving the house, as we're crossing our street, I attempted to pop a wheelie and jump the curb, thinking I was still 13. Obviously, I flipped over my handlebars and wound up lying in the street in front of my house, then jumping up and looking around to see how many neighbors saw my act of coolness. Madison just shook her head. The real bummer was that I majorly bent my handlebars, requiring professional attention, and we couldn't even go on a bike ride that day. Madison was pretty annoyed by my clumsiness by then, but what can I say?
Later in the month, I attended the annual conference of the Mid-South Chapter of the Society of Environmental Toxicologists and Chemists, also known as GeekFest '07, in exciting Nashville. I went with fellow lab person, Sam, and another grad student, Mizuki. It was super-swank for a chapter meeting, with the conference being held in the TN Titans stadium. We were on the club level which overlooked the Cumberland River and downtown Nashville.
The first day was a so-called short course on cancer and non-cancer risk assessment. They fed us bbq for lunch and then subjected our brains to many things new and some interesting dealing with hazard identification, dose response assessment, risk characterization, blah, blah, blah. It was nice to have the view to focus on now and again when I got lost in that stuff. Sam wisely suggested that we scoot out after the non-cancer portion of the program and check into our hotel.
Once checked in, I discovered neither Sam nor Mizuki had been to NashVegas before. So, we headed downtown, where I insisted on pointing out the Ryman Auditorium, and whose significance I got to explain to Mizuki cause he's from Japan. Once we hit Broadway, we were looking about for our affordable drinking options, and that's when we met Phil. Phil explained that he was a musician, down on his luck after a couple of bad nights, but was from the Haight-Ashbury scene and had played with Jerry Garcia. He suggested that he show us where the cheap beer was, in exchange for some for himself. I guess Sam and I kinda took pity on the dude, even though he was obviously full of shit, but we were betting he knew where the cheap beer was. So, we followed him across the street to the Paradise Park Trailer Resort bar, Home of the $6 Pitcher, complete with trailer park decor and a cover band, but no cover. So Phil delivered. And even though he offered to throw in his $1.75 in change for his beer, we were feeling charitable and let him keep it and hoped he would leave us alone after that, which basically he did. We met Mizuki's friend, Rebecca, there but we didn't stay out long, with the conference beginning bright and early at 8am.
The next day was full of interesting talks, including one given by Sam, which turned out to win 2nd place for student presentations! There was good coffee and cereal bars at breakfast, another good lunch, and coffee and cookies in the afternoon. That evening there was a mixer at a nearby German restaurant. The MTSU "Pickin' Professors" played some bluegrass, while the ASU Delta Professors played some blues. It was extremely fun, and appetizers and the 1st round of beer were covered by the conference sponsors. Man, I love corporate sponsorship!
Later that evening, although we tried, we were unable to resist the temptation of the karaoke bar in the hotel. It was great because none of us had ever really had that hotel karaoke bar experience, and most of the singers were really good. Even Sam gave a surprisingly decent rendition of the David Allan Coe favorite, "You Don't Have to Call Me Darlin', Darlin' ". And although his people invented karaoke, Mizuki would have no part of performing in front of strangers. Apparently, in Japan, a group of friends will have a party and rent out a private karaoke room, and they perform only in front of friends generally. It was an entertaining time while we were there.
The last day had more talking, coffee, food, and then freaking door prizes for everyone! I couldn't believe it. Did I mention this whole entire conference cost $20? So, I scored a book entitled "Estrogens and Xenobiotic Compounds in the Aquatic Environment" and a bumper sticker that says,"Back Off Man, I'm A Scientist". When I got the book, I figured who the hell cared about xenobiotic compounds or whatever - I'd never heard of this stuff - but it turns out to be some cutting-edge Dutch research. Almost all the contributing authors work in the Netherlands. So I decided that I was meant to have that book after all and should try to read it. I'm working on it, that's all I can say.
Madison got out of school the day after Memorial Day, and, as an attempt at a sanity-saving measure, we now have cable. I hate it constantly, and I'm not at all sure it's saving any sanity due to my completely unreasonable insistence (in Madison's view) of restricting viewing hours to less than 10 per day. It's nice to be able to let her watch an hour show and get an hour of work done, but I'm still pretty unhappy about it all. Andrew, on the other hand, has been quite pleased with it, and he certainly deserves anything that makes him happy these days with his hellish job. So the cable stays and I shut up, for now. We've been getting our money's worth out of our zoo membership, though, and that really does help my sanity.
Today, Madison, the dogs, and I went to the nearby Shelby Forest that I had read a lot about. It was further away than I expected, but cooler than I expected, so it worked out well. We were breaking in our new hiking boots, so we didn't go far, but everyone enjoyed the time spent in nature. After our hike, we saw some signs to the Mississippi River, so I followed them and eventually we found it. It was quite impressive to see it without any development along the banks, just a flat wide expanse of brown water, really one heck of a river.
Now we're making lists and gathering supplies for the beach. We leave on Thursday and will be back the next Friday. Can't wait!
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 06/04/07.
The next weekend, Madison, Delta, and I went to Kentucky, so she could visit Jerry and company. I spent some time hanging out with Emily on Friday. Then, on Saturday, Mom and I went running around several counties, from Munfordville to Greensburg to Campbellsville and back to Hodgenville. On Sunday, Mom and I ate Mother's Day brunch at Moma Sond's on Hodgenville's main street. We were met there by our pal, CE, another ex-Hodgenville rebel. He drank coffee, and we ate to bursting. We got our desserts to go, along with a piece of chocolate merguine pie for Great (my grandma), told CE bye, and headed to Great's. We had our dessert and did a tour of her garden. After visiting for a bit, I went to pick up Madison in Louisville. She had a marigold for me and a neat card she had made in Sunday school. We stopped back by Mom's on our way out of town to collect Delta and our stuff, then journeyed the 5 hours back to Memphis.
Somewhere in there, Madison and I attempted to go for a bike ride one afternoon. Immediately after leaving the house, as we're crossing our street, I attempted to pop a wheelie and jump the curb, thinking I was still 13. Obviously, I flipped over my handlebars and wound up lying in the street in front of my house, then jumping up and looking around to see how many neighbors saw my act of coolness. Madison just shook her head. The real bummer was that I majorly bent my handlebars, requiring professional attention, and we couldn't even go on a bike ride that day. Madison was pretty annoyed by my clumsiness by then, but what can I say?
Later in the month, I attended the annual conference of the Mid-South Chapter of the Society of Environmental Toxicologists and Chemists, also known as GeekFest '07, in exciting Nashville. I went with fellow lab person, Sam, and another grad student, Mizuki. It was super-swank for a chapter meeting, with the conference being held in the TN Titans stadium. We were on the club level which overlooked the Cumberland River and downtown Nashville.
The first day was a so-called short course on cancer and non-cancer risk assessment. They fed us bbq for lunch and then subjected our brains to many things new and some interesting dealing with hazard identification, dose response assessment, risk characterization, blah, blah, blah. It was nice to have the view to focus on now and again when I got lost in that stuff. Sam wisely suggested that we scoot out after the non-cancer portion of the program and check into our hotel.
Once checked in, I discovered neither Sam nor Mizuki had been to NashVegas before. So, we headed downtown, where I insisted on pointing out the Ryman Auditorium, and whose significance I got to explain to Mizuki cause he's from Japan. Once we hit Broadway, we were looking about for our affordable drinking options, and that's when we met Phil. Phil explained that he was a musician, down on his luck after a couple of bad nights, but was from the Haight-Ashbury scene and had played with Jerry Garcia. He suggested that he show us where the cheap beer was, in exchange for some for himself. I guess Sam and I kinda took pity on the dude, even though he was obviously full of shit, but we were betting he knew where the cheap beer was. So, we followed him across the street to the Paradise Park Trailer Resort bar, Home of the $6 Pitcher, complete with trailer park decor and a cover band, but no cover. So Phil delivered. And even though he offered to throw in his $1.75 in change for his beer, we were feeling charitable and let him keep it and hoped he would leave us alone after that, which basically he did. We met Mizuki's friend, Rebecca, there but we didn't stay out long, with the conference beginning bright and early at 8am.
The next day was full of interesting talks, including one given by Sam, which turned out to win 2nd place for student presentations! There was good coffee and cereal bars at breakfast, another good lunch, and coffee and cookies in the afternoon. That evening there was a mixer at a nearby German restaurant. The MTSU "Pickin' Professors" played some bluegrass, while the ASU Delta Professors played some blues. It was extremely fun, and appetizers and the 1st round of beer were covered by the conference sponsors. Man, I love corporate sponsorship!
Later that evening, although we tried, we were unable to resist the temptation of the karaoke bar in the hotel. It was great because none of us had ever really had that hotel karaoke bar experience, and most of the singers were really good. Even Sam gave a surprisingly decent rendition of the David Allan Coe favorite, "You Don't Have to Call Me Darlin', Darlin' ". And although his people invented karaoke, Mizuki would have no part of performing in front of strangers. Apparently, in Japan, a group of friends will have a party and rent out a private karaoke room, and they perform only in front of friends generally. It was an entertaining time while we were there.
The last day had more talking, coffee, food, and then freaking door prizes for everyone! I couldn't believe it. Did I mention this whole entire conference cost $20? So, I scored a book entitled "Estrogens and Xenobiotic Compounds in the Aquatic Environment" and a bumper sticker that says,"Back Off Man, I'm A Scientist". When I got the book, I figured who the hell cared about xenobiotic compounds or whatever - I'd never heard of this stuff - but it turns out to be some cutting-edge Dutch research. Almost all the contributing authors work in the Netherlands. So I decided that I was meant to have that book after all and should try to read it. I'm working on it, that's all I can say.
Madison got out of school the day after Memorial Day, and, as an attempt at a sanity-saving measure, we now have cable. I hate it constantly, and I'm not at all sure it's saving any sanity due to my completely unreasonable insistence (in Madison's view) of restricting viewing hours to less than 10 per day. It's nice to be able to let her watch an hour show and get an hour of work done, but I'm still pretty unhappy about it all. Andrew, on the other hand, has been quite pleased with it, and he certainly deserves anything that makes him happy these days with his hellish job. So the cable stays and I shut up, for now. We've been getting our money's worth out of our zoo membership, though, and that really does help my sanity.
Today, Madison, the dogs, and I went to the nearby Shelby Forest that I had read a lot about. It was further away than I expected, but cooler than I expected, so it worked out well. We were breaking in our new hiking boots, so we didn't go far, but everyone enjoyed the time spent in nature. After our hike, we saw some signs to the Mississippi River, so I followed them and eventually we found it. It was quite impressive to see it without any development along the banks, just a flat wide expanse of brown water, really one heck of a river.
Now we're making lists and gathering supplies for the beach. We leave on Thursday and will be back the next Friday. Can't wait!
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 06/04/07.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Public radio venting
One of the most difficult things about moving to Memphis has been trying to find the good npr stations. Coming from the Louisville market, the bar was set extremely high for my public radio expectations. I realized that once I moved out of the yankee north, though, that I needed to adjust to how things are done here in the south. It took a little while, but I found the cool adult alternative station, WEVL, that has some really great programs for blues and soul (duh). So that helped some. And when I finally found the station that did talk radio all day -- I'm talking BBC World Have Your Say, You Bet Your Garden, and Talk of the Nation! -- I thought that everything would be okay here. That station, however, has recently been sold to a religious group and now all my talk radio is gone! The other station that plays classical all day does have Morning Edition and All Things Considered during the week. And it's a little better on the weekend when they have Car Talk and Whatdya Know. But what about Neal and Talk of the Nation? What about Terry and Fresh Air? I'm intellectually impoverished here! I don't watch TV or read the paper or generally get out from under my rock, but npr allowed me to transcend all that and have a clue about what was going on in the broader world. I knew we should have donated!!!
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 05/02/07.
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 05/02/07.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Herpetology week updates
All this talk about snakes made me think of other cool herpetological experiences I had last week. First I got to watch our leopard gecko, Gilbert, do the difficult business of molting. We've seen his skin get cloudy over a couple days, indicating that he's going to molt soon. And then we find him the next day with shiny new skin. But I hadn't actually seen him peeling his skin off.
Since he's nocturnal, we generally don't bother him much during the day. But last week when I was getting ready for Monteagle, I was sprucing up his cage in the middle of the day. Gilbert was awake and hiding in his half of a coconut shell when I went in. I could see his skin was peeled back from around his face, but he didn't do much but glare at me while I working in his cage. As soon as I was done, though, he started doing this weird kind of dance, stepping out of the coconut shell and then backing back into it while moving his head up and down. It took a moment to realize that he wasn't dancing but rubbing his body on the inside of the coconut shell.
Then he began scraping his head around the shell's entrance. His skin peeled back from his head and down his neck. Next he set about peeling the skin off his forelimbs. He used his mouth to tug the loosened skin from his neck down along his leg. After much tugging, the whole section of skin peeled off like a long glove! He paused to eat this bit before performing the same feat on his other leg.
It took about 20 minutes in all, which I didn't get to watch all of because I was packing. After more funny lizard dances, I popped in to check on him again and saw that he was chewing on the tail section and looking shiny and happy. Then I gave him some crickets, and he hunted them despite it being daytime. It looked like a really difficult process for him in all, and apparently Gilbert had worked up an appetite - his shed skin was just an appetizer.
Also, I've been having an affair with a chameleon at Petco, behind Gilbert's back. We, usually I, go to Petco every couple of days for fresh pinheads (baby crickets) for Gilbert. They have had a large male veiled chameleon, the same one I think, since we got Gilbert in January and began going there all the time. I really love watching this guy while the Petco person gets my crickets for me. He changes color, has crazy cone shaped eyes that move independently, a curly tail, and his feet are kinda like hands with two toes on each side which he uses to hold on with.... just too cool, and I'm rather enamored of him. I think I fell for him the time I saw him trying to catch the crickets in the fire-bellied toad cage next to him, since it was just separated by glass. He kept throwing out this impossibly long tongue, which smacked against the glass and stuck there until he retracted it, pretty quickly too. Funny and cute!
Last week, I when I went to call on him, I guess he was in a bad mood. I'd always thought he'd liked me before, but he's a lizard and can't communicate his feelings in the same way we do. He'd perk up and look at me when I visited. Sometimes he changed color to match my shirt. He was always interested in presence, and I assumed he appreciated the interaction. But last time he tried to bite me through the glass! And that mouth is full of many large teeth, I now know. I dunno if I was behaving in some threatening way, but he was out for a taste either way, bumping his open mouth against the glass, then sticking out his tongue onto the glass. It was really aggressive behavior, and it made me realize that our relationship is perfect the way it is ...just don't tell Gilbert!
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 05/01/07.
Since he's nocturnal, we generally don't bother him much during the day. But last week when I was getting ready for Monteagle, I was sprucing up his cage in the middle of the day. Gilbert was awake and hiding in his half of a coconut shell when I went in. I could see his skin was peeled back from around his face, but he didn't do much but glare at me while I working in his cage. As soon as I was done, though, he started doing this weird kind of dance, stepping out of the coconut shell and then backing back into it while moving his head up and down. It took a moment to realize that he wasn't dancing but rubbing his body on the inside of the coconut shell.
Then he began scraping his head around the shell's entrance. His skin peeled back from his head and down his neck. Next he set about peeling the skin off his forelimbs. He used his mouth to tug the loosened skin from his neck down along his leg. After much tugging, the whole section of skin peeled off like a long glove! He paused to eat this bit before performing the same feat on his other leg.
It took about 20 minutes in all, which I didn't get to watch all of because I was packing. After more funny lizard dances, I popped in to check on him again and saw that he was chewing on the tail section and looking shiny and happy. Then I gave him some crickets, and he hunted them despite it being daytime. It looked like a really difficult process for him in all, and apparently Gilbert had worked up an appetite - his shed skin was just an appetizer.
Also, I've been having an affair with a chameleon at Petco, behind Gilbert's back. We, usually I, go to Petco every couple of days for fresh pinheads (baby crickets) for Gilbert. They have had a large male veiled chameleon, the same one I think, since we got Gilbert in January and began going there all the time. I really love watching this guy while the Petco person gets my crickets for me. He changes color, has crazy cone shaped eyes that move independently, a curly tail, and his feet are kinda like hands with two toes on each side which he uses to hold on with.... just too cool, and I'm rather enamored of him. I think I fell for him the time I saw him trying to catch the crickets in the fire-bellied toad cage next to him, since it was just separated by glass. He kept throwing out this impossibly long tongue, which smacked against the glass and stuck there until he retracted it, pretty quickly too. Funny and cute!
Last week, I when I went to call on him, I guess he was in a bad mood. I'd always thought he'd liked me before, but he's a lizard and can't communicate his feelings in the same way we do. He'd perk up and look at me when I visited. Sometimes he changed color to match my shirt. He was always interested in presence, and I assumed he appreciated the interaction. But last time he tried to bite me through the glass! And that mouth is full of many large teeth, I now know. I dunno if I was behaving in some threatening way, but he was out for a taste either way, bumping his open mouth against the glass, then sticking out his tongue onto the glass. It was really aggressive behavior, and it made me realize that our relationship is perfect the way it is ...just don't tell Gilbert!
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 05/01/07.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Wilderness encounters, Monteagle
Last week, I went with my friend, Sam, to the AgriCenter at Shelby Farms to check out some plots in an ag ditch for Sam's experiment. We walked over to the first site and looked down in the ditch. Sam pointed out a long, skinny black snake swimming in the water to our left. When I glanced to my right, I saw a really large black snake curled up among some grasses. It was slightly nightmarish to have walked up on them so suddenly, and we looked all around where we were standing in case there were more.
Apparently, this was a breeding pair of water moccasins, and they were none too happy to be disturbed. The large (3.5 to 4 ft) swimming snake was probably the male while the larger (+ 5 ft), really angry snake was likely the female. The female shook her tail and opened her mouth to display her displeasure. When we maneuvered around for a better view, she even wiggled her tongue at us to show her rage. The male just swam around, either hunting or waiting to be alone again with big mama. We stood there watching them for about ten minutes. Strangely, the female disappeared without us seeing where she went, but the male kept patrolling the area.
After we went around to Sam's other plots, we couldn't resist going back to the first ditch to try to get another look at them. We found the male swimming around a little further down, but the female was still hiding. While I was leaning in to take a picture of the swimming male with my phone (which didn't turn out), the snake actually disappeared in front of my eyes! There was this noise like breaking the seal on a pickle jar, and the snake was gone. It was too creepy to see how quickly it could disappear... and to think that they can ostensibly re-appear just as quickly. So, in future visit to Sam's sites, I will not be getting in the ditch. I will stand on the bank and be the data recorder, thank you!
A couple of days ago, we went to Monteagle, Tennessee for a little R&R. While we were there, I found a little garter snake that was so extremely groggy I wasn't sure it was alive (it didn't respond when I dropped little sticks close to it, but it started sniffing with its tongue when I dropped a little stick on it). He was hanging out by the house, sunning himself, and left without incident.
I didn't see any wildlife on my hike in Savage Gulf State Natural Area. I'd been looking forward to possibly seeing some nice wildflowers, as their peak season is April through mid-May, but I didn't see anything exciting. It was fun to go back to Savage Falls and also very pleasant to go on a good hike with just Cuba and me.
While it was a short visit, Monteagle was great fun as always. I got to hike. Andrew got to chill. Madison got to explore the Assembly grounds. We got to see our good friends Nick and Andrea and their darling daughter, Aspen. Now we're looking forward to MusicFest next weekend!!!!
Apparently, this was a breeding pair of water moccasins, and they were none too happy to be disturbed. The large (3.5 to 4 ft) swimming snake was probably the male while the larger (+ 5 ft), really angry snake was likely the female. The female shook her tail and opened her mouth to display her displeasure. When we maneuvered around for a better view, she even wiggled her tongue at us to show her rage. The male just swam around, either hunting or waiting to be alone again with big mama. We stood there watching them for about ten minutes. Strangely, the female disappeared without us seeing where she went, but the male kept patrolling the area.
After we went around to Sam's other plots, we couldn't resist going back to the first ditch to try to get another look at them. We found the male swimming around a little further down, but the female was still hiding. While I was leaning in to take a picture of the swimming male with my phone (which didn't turn out), the snake actually disappeared in front of my eyes! There was this noise like breaking the seal on a pickle jar, and the snake was gone. It was too creepy to see how quickly it could disappear... and to think that they can ostensibly re-appear just as quickly. So, in future visit to Sam's sites, I will not be getting in the ditch. I will stand on the bank and be the data recorder, thank you!
A couple of days ago, we went to Monteagle, Tennessee for a little R&R. While we were there, I found a little garter snake that was so extremely groggy I wasn't sure it was alive (it didn't respond when I dropped little sticks close to it, but it started sniffing with its tongue when I dropped a little stick on it). He was hanging out by the house, sunning himself, and left without incident.
I didn't see any wildlife on my hike in Savage Gulf State Natural Area. I'd been looking forward to possibly seeing some nice wildflowers, as their peak season is April through mid-May, but I didn't see anything exciting. It was fun to go back to Savage Falls and also very pleasant to go on a good hike with just Cuba and me.
While it was a short visit, Monteagle was great fun as always. I got to hike. Andrew got to chill. Madison got to explore the Assembly grounds. We got to see our good friends Nick and Andrea and their darling daughter, Aspen. Now we're looking forward to MusicFest next weekend!!!!
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 04/28/07.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
I'm in!!!
I finally got formally accepted into the Graduate Program in the Department of Biology at the University of Memphis! I will be studying under Dr. Reza Pezeshki, examining the effects of agricultural run-off on species of ditch plants for my own project for a Master of Science degree, and continuing to assist others in the lab to gain additional experience. I'm thrilled to be setting out on this next step to becoming a real scientist!
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 04/22/07.
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 04/22/07.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Meet Delta, the Mississippi Queen
We made our final addition to our family! She is a 7 week old terrier mix mutt. We found Delta at the adoption fair for the DeSoto Animal Rescue Organization. She was the last puppy of the day, and it was meant to be! She's been fitting in well with Cuba, our other dog, and the cats, JoJo and Kesey. The cutest thing possible is watching Madison play with Delta! More picutres to come, I'm sure!
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 03/27/07.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Spring break chronicles
On Saturday, Madison and I headed to Kentucky from Memphis. Madison went to spend the night at Jerry's, and I spent the night at Emily's. I went with her and Billy to see 300. That was an interesting experience I never would have had if they hadn't bought me a ticket.
On Sunday, I picked up Madison from her dad's in J-town and then dropped her off at her Uncle John and Aunt Mandy's in New Haven. Then I went to kick it with my buddy Rich in Munfordville.
On Monday and Tuesday, I chilled at my mom's and enjoyed the splendid weather. I picked up Madison in New Haven on Tuesday afternoon, then we went over to our friends, the Howletts, in Hodgenville to visit for a spell. From there, we stopped by Great's (my grandma) over in White City.
Wednesday morning, Mom, Madison, and I set out for Randleman, NC to spend the night with Aunt Debbie and Uncle Sean. On the way, we stopped in at the McDonald's at the Biltmore Estate exit in Asheville, NC. It was resplendent with a player baby grand piano, a stone fireplace, and tapestries. Pretty cool.
Once we arrived at my aunt's and uncle's, I had a lovely time exploring the small creek behind their house. I found a couple of kinds of mosses, an animal burrow, a centipede, two types of frogs, saw some bats, and listened to a frog duet up close and personal amongst some cattails. Sweet.
After dinner, we all had a nifty time enjoying my aunt and uncle's spectroscope. This contraption dates from the early 1800's and contains off-set lenses that create a 3D effect when viewing a photographic image-card. They had like 50 cards, each one a glimpse of a time gone by. Even Madison was reasonably impressed, until she was ready to take advantage the cable opportunity.
Thursday morning, we set off for Charleston... right after I clumsily managed to inadvertently smash an ornamental ceramic box of my aunt's. She graciously claimed that she didn't like it anyway. On our way out Randleman, we couldn't resist the temptation of taking pictures of Richard Petty's house and gates from the road....yes, THE Richard Petty. We didn't make it to see the town's statue or to Richard Petty Museum on this trip, but maybe some other time.
Once underway, our route to Charleston took us through rural NC and SC, which was quite scenic, and we still were making pretty good time. Our time record was ruined when we decided to get adventurous for lunch, and we stopped into the JR's Grocery and Grill for a quick bite. We got lunch, but it wasn't quick. That was okay, because we weren't in a hurry and could appreciate the much slower pace of country life.
We arrived in Charleston at the time to check into our hotel. We got off the exit but couldn't find it, so I called. It turned out that they had bumped our Priceline reservation to another hotel that was a couple of miles closer to downtown, which worked out really well. We checked in and then headed into downtown.
We decided to roll by Carter's address to see if his area was as bad as he had billed it. It was. But surprisingly, it was immediately adjacent to many blocks of cool areas. We followed the crowded streets of nifty shops and galleries away from there, down to the tip of Charleston's peninsula, the Battery, and drove around and gawked at the amazing houses.
We figured out how to get onto and drive across the new Ravenel Bridge across the Ashley River to Mt. Pleasant. We got off at the Patriot's Point Park and took pictures of the aircraft carrier they had hanging out there. There was a great view of the bridge with a bit of marshy area nearby. It wasn't long before Carter called and asked us to pick him up at his apartment.
Going into Carter's apartment was considerably cooler than seeing the outside. He's done a good job fixing it up with posters and kick-down furniture. Mom was still sketched, so we headed out pretty quickly.
Carter directed us to James Island and down to the Folly Beach washout. This is now a preserve area that used to have houses and stores through there, until the hurricanes made it untenable. Several building foundations remain to lend a somewhat desolate feel to the place. But the dunes and beach are lovely. Also, there's an abandoned lighthouse just off the coast in the channel. It is separated from the beach and just stands in the water, no island around it. It used to be connected to the coast, but the channel eroded out the connection. It could topple anytime and is another relic, lending to the sense of an era past.
We spent some time enjoying the beach and collecting shells, but the sun was setting fast, so we headed back to the van. For dinner, we ate at Carter's former place of employment, the East Bay Crab Shack. It was indeed shacktacular, as advertised. After dinner, we dropped Carter off at his apartment, since he had to rise at 6am to work until 12. We ladies went back to the hotel and hit the hay shortly after that.
We awoke Fri. morning to a big rainstorm and the prediction of persistent precipitation throughout the day. We brainstormed on inside activities, which was tough because we hadn't really planned any. While we got ready to go, though, the skies cleared out, and so we headed downtown.
We started out at the Visitor Center, which was in a neat old building with several cool exhibits. From there, we went to find Marion Square. When we were driving around the day before, we noticed that there were folks setting up tents and booths at Marion Square for the next day. We decided to check out what that was about. It turned out to be exhibitions of students from the Charleston College of Building Arts, the only institute of its kind. It was cool, with guys doing ironwork, plastering, framing, painting, etc. Marion Square was nice as well, with trees and benches, statues and memorials. I also found it amusing that the former Citadel building on the square, looking much like a formidable pink stucco fortress, is now an Embassy Suites.
Carter called and said he would meet us there, so we had a seat on a bench to wait for him. That was when the bird pooped on me. Once Carter joined us, we went back to the van so Mom could clean me up; the poo was on my back.
Once tidied up, we set out to find the French Huguenot church, because I really wanted to see the architecture up close. We found it, and it was impressively old and architectural. It also had a small, lovely cemetery on the grounds. Carter advised that we make it to the Market, which was nearby.
The Market is a row of open-sided buildings that vendors set up in, a la flea market style. Much of it was flea market fare, but there were some more interesting items as well. Carter had misinformed us that this building was the same thing as the Slave Mart (it's not). But not being able to find any mention of this (incorrect) fact anywhere on the premises, I wandered upstairs to the Museum for the Daughters of the Revolution to ask about the building's historical significance. They said that, while it wasn't the Slave Mart (that was a block over), many slaves did work in the building, which was dedicated to the selling of produce and livestock.
Some where along the way, Mom asked a local guy about the the crazy birds overhead. He said they were grackles, which are bit smaller than crowes and a dark-brown in color. They have rounded tails and a distinctive song!
Carter had stayed behind to nap in the van while we checked out the Market. Once we'd seen it all, we returned to the van to regroup. Carter suggested we go to the Waterfront Park, and so we did. It was lovely, with a pier-like area over the water with benches and swings. Adjacent to that was a park with a huge pineapple fountain. When we went out on the pier, it became obvious that the rain was on its way back in a hurry. Before we headed back, Carter noticed that a group of seagulls were diving at the water, and the water boiled in the spot they were diving at. I said it was a school of fish, which I guess it was, because a couple of porpoises were moving through there as well. This gave us all a thrill, and we stood watching them for longer than we should have, since we wound up getting quite soaked before making it back to the van.
Mom and I came to Charleston with the idea that we might be able to make some meager contribution to Carter's household arrangements, so while we were rained out, we went to the Store for the Habitat for Humanity that Carter had heard about. That was a new one on me, and it was pretty cool, but we didn't have much luck there... only a mirror and wooden trivet shaped like fish.
For dinner, we went back to our hotel to eat fried chicken and kick it for a bit. Then I took Carter home while Mom and Madison stayed behind to watch Ocean's 11 (...hmm). At any rate, we had a great time kicking it and playing with Pootie. I hung out with another tenant in Carter's building for a while, and he also strongly felt that, after 2 years there, the situation looked worse than it actually was, and things were improving overall. That was encouraging. I also briefly met Carter's girlfriend, Courtney, before heading back to the hotel.
Carter and Courtney were going out on Friday night, so on Saturday morning, Mom, Maddie, and I went to do the sort of touristy stuff Carter was less enthusiastic about. We parked downtown and started out on foot at the Rainbow Row. We found a little greenspace, Washington Park, with some nice statuary. We walked the length of Charleston's longest cobblestoned street on our way to the real Slave Mart. It will soon be open as a museum, but I wanted to see the building anyway. It turns out that the slaves we actually sold on the steps of the Old Exchange Building, which we also found just a few blocks away.
We came upon a large Irish gathering on the steps of the Hibernian Hall, complete with a band and fully decked-out bagpipers. After hanging out in that scene for a bit, we disentangled ourselves to head back to the van by way of gawking at the houses on our way down the street.
Back at the van, Mom popped into the shop in front of which our van had been parked. She had scoped a cool piece of architectural salvage earlier and went back for it. Meanwhile, Madison and I stood out in front of the shop with the pleasant and docile shop dog, Buster Brown. Buster musta smelled Pootie Pop on my jeans, because while I was turned the other way gawking at another house, Mr. Brown marked my leg. I only realized when I heard Madison laughing into her hand and saw she was pointing at my now-moistened pant leg. She saw the whole thing and let it happen while I was looking away...argh! Funny, funny. But did anyone want to go back to the hotel so I could change? Of course not... and I'm supposed to be some kind of hippie, right?, so I let it ride. This turned out to be for the best.
Around then, Carter called to say he was up and getting ready. Mom didn't want to go wait around his place while he got ready, so we hopped in the van and drove around. We quickly happened upon this park we hadn't seen yet. It had a semicircular set of steps with 4 old, ornate columns, attached to nothing. Mom asked a lady walking her dog what the story was on the steps and columns. They were the front of the old Charleston Museum, all that remained after it burned. This made for a cool backdrop for a game of frisbee with the Madison souvenir frisbee that was her plate at the Crab Shack. Unfortunately, the backside of the steps was grown up with some shrub with giant thorns. I found this out after the frisbee kept being drawn into it like the Bermuda Triangle. Finally we had to give up on frisbee because the third romp among the 2 inch thorn-spikes was really quite enough for me. By then, it was time to rendezvous with Carter and Courtney anyway, so we headed back to the hood.
On the radio the previous evening, I had heard that Folly Beach was having a craft fair and music for St. Patrick's Day. We went back to James Island, and first went to the Folly Beach Goodwill. There we found a dresser thing that was perfect for Carter. He also found a microwave and got some bath towels and a couple of pillowcases. We loaded our booty in the van then went to the craft fair.
The setup was small, but there were some lovely items from the local artisans. I found a cool ceramic spoonrest for Andrew there. Madison got a nifty cat picture with her allowance she'd been saving for the trip. The park was next to a pier over a marsh and out over the water. We strolled down that way, but we all decided we wanted to go back to the washout.
We spent the rest of the afternoon playing at the beach. Carter had brought Pootie, who was absolutely hysterical in the sand. She and Madison had lots of fun playing in the sand together. Carter and Madison tried to play a game of psuedo-lacrosse (scoop without a stick and light-duty), but the wind made it extremely difficult. We adults had been sitting on a retaining wall made from railroad ties, so when we got up, we had creosote all over the backs of our pants. Everyone else's pretty much brushed off except mine; I'd gotten it especially thoroughly. That was okay, I rationalized, since a dog had already peed on those pants that day.
For dinner, we decided we needed to get shacktacular again on our last night in town. Fun was had by all, even when Madison flipped over and fell out of an airchair the restaurant had out on the deck... whew! Walking back to the van, Madison noticed I had something on the back of my pants that wasn't creosote. It was globs and spatter of what appeared to be more bird poop! As I was trying to wipe it all off, I discovered pickle relish in the mix and figured out that it was tartar sauce. But where did it come from? No one had any with their food, and we were pretty much in and out. Who knows. But those jeans had had it!
We left Carter and Courtney to go back to the hotel to pack for our early morning departure. I got my stuff together and then went back to Carter's. After Carter and his neighbor, Jimmy, unloaded Carter's Goodwill treasures, Carter, Courtney, and I set out for the Charleston Pour House to see New Monsoon.
Once we made it in, New Monsoon rocked my socks off! I was DD that night, so it was solely the music that made me boogie like that. It was also extremely cool to see a show with my brother again, now that he can't leave SC and I live in Memphis. I hope to catch those guys again soon!
So, after running around Charleston all day since 7am, I finally crawled into bed after the show at 3am. Our wake-up call was a 6am, and I had us packed up and on the road by 7am. I took an hour nap on the way to Asheville, that resulted in some directional confusion - no biggie. Then once we were on 75N toward Ky, I napped for almost an hour before Mom woke me up and told me she thought she had missed our exit (she had). I checked the map, and the upcoming exit would work also, so we got off there. This turned out to be a curvy 2 lane road along the ridgetop in the Daniel Boone National Forest. It also ran right by Cumberland Falls State Park. I saw it on the map but figured it would require a hike or some major detour to check them out. But, it turns out, they we just off the road, so we pulled in to walk around and take pictures. It was an exceedingly pleasant little diversion.
From Cumberland Falls, it wasn't too much further until Hodgenville. We didn't roll in until 6pm, though - 11 hours on the road. At mom's, I cleaned out her van and repacked my stuff in my car. By 7pm, I was back on the road with Madison, headed down to highway to Memphis. It took 6 hours to get home that night, for some reason, but we made it. We had spent 17 of the last 24 hours in a car!
It was a whirlwind extravaganza, but that's how we do. Charleston was awesome! It was great to visit with family! New Monsoon is my new favorite band!
...And now we begin planning for the family vacation in June, to Gulf Shores, with our pals, the Beckham family!
On Sunday, I picked up Madison from her dad's in J-town and then dropped her off at her Uncle John and Aunt Mandy's in New Haven. Then I went to kick it with my buddy Rich in Munfordville.
On Monday and Tuesday, I chilled at my mom's and enjoyed the splendid weather. I picked up Madison in New Haven on Tuesday afternoon, then we went over to our friends, the Howletts, in Hodgenville to visit for a spell. From there, we stopped by Great's (my grandma) over in White City.
Wednesday morning, Mom, Madison, and I set out for Randleman, NC to spend the night with Aunt Debbie and Uncle Sean. On the way, we stopped in at the McDonald's at the Biltmore Estate exit in Asheville, NC. It was resplendent with a player baby grand piano, a stone fireplace, and tapestries. Pretty cool.
Once we arrived at my aunt's and uncle's, I had a lovely time exploring the small creek behind their house. I found a couple of kinds of mosses, an animal burrow, a centipede, two types of frogs, saw some bats, and listened to a frog duet up close and personal amongst some cattails. Sweet.
After dinner, we all had a nifty time enjoying my aunt and uncle's spectroscope. This contraption dates from the early 1800's and contains off-set lenses that create a 3D effect when viewing a photographic image-card. They had like 50 cards, each one a glimpse of a time gone by. Even Madison was reasonably impressed, until she was ready to take advantage the cable opportunity.
Thursday morning, we set off for Charleston... right after I clumsily managed to inadvertently smash an ornamental ceramic box of my aunt's. She graciously claimed that she didn't like it anyway. On our way out Randleman, we couldn't resist the temptation of taking pictures of Richard Petty's house and gates from the road....yes, THE Richard Petty. We didn't make it to see the town's statue or to Richard Petty Museum on this trip, but maybe some other time.
Once underway, our route to Charleston took us through rural NC and SC, which was quite scenic, and we still were making pretty good time. Our time record was ruined when we decided to get adventurous for lunch, and we stopped into the JR's Grocery and Grill for a quick bite. We got lunch, but it wasn't quick. That was okay, because we weren't in a hurry and could appreciate the much slower pace of country life.
We arrived in Charleston at the time to check into our hotel. We got off the exit but couldn't find it, so I called. It turned out that they had bumped our Priceline reservation to another hotel that was a couple of miles closer to downtown, which worked out really well. We checked in and then headed into downtown.
We decided to roll by Carter's address to see if his area was as bad as he had billed it. It was. But surprisingly, it was immediately adjacent to many blocks of cool areas. We followed the crowded streets of nifty shops and galleries away from there, down to the tip of Charleston's peninsula, the Battery, and drove around and gawked at the amazing houses.
We figured out how to get onto and drive across the new Ravenel Bridge across the Ashley River to Mt. Pleasant. We got off at the Patriot's Point Park and took pictures of the aircraft carrier they had hanging out there. There was a great view of the bridge with a bit of marshy area nearby. It wasn't long before Carter called and asked us to pick him up at his apartment.
Going into Carter's apartment was considerably cooler than seeing the outside. He's done a good job fixing it up with posters and kick-down furniture. Mom was still sketched, so we headed out pretty quickly.
Carter directed us to James Island and down to the Folly Beach washout. This is now a preserve area that used to have houses and stores through there, until the hurricanes made it untenable. Several building foundations remain to lend a somewhat desolate feel to the place. But the dunes and beach are lovely. Also, there's an abandoned lighthouse just off the coast in the channel. It is separated from the beach and just stands in the water, no island around it. It used to be connected to the coast, but the channel eroded out the connection. It could topple anytime and is another relic, lending to the sense of an era past.
We spent some time enjoying the beach and collecting shells, but the sun was setting fast, so we headed back to the van. For dinner, we ate at Carter's former place of employment, the East Bay Crab Shack. It was indeed shacktacular, as advertised. After dinner, we dropped Carter off at his apartment, since he had to rise at 6am to work until 12. We ladies went back to the hotel and hit the hay shortly after that.
We awoke Fri. morning to a big rainstorm and the prediction of persistent precipitation throughout the day. We brainstormed on inside activities, which was tough because we hadn't really planned any. While we got ready to go, though, the skies cleared out, and so we headed downtown.
We started out at the Visitor Center, which was in a neat old building with several cool exhibits. From there, we went to find Marion Square. When we were driving around the day before, we noticed that there were folks setting up tents and booths at Marion Square for the next day. We decided to check out what that was about. It turned out to be exhibitions of students from the Charleston College of Building Arts, the only institute of its kind. It was cool, with guys doing ironwork, plastering, framing, painting, etc. Marion Square was nice as well, with trees and benches, statues and memorials. I also found it amusing that the former Citadel building on the square, looking much like a formidable pink stucco fortress, is now an Embassy Suites.
Carter called and said he would meet us there, so we had a seat on a bench to wait for him. That was when the bird pooped on me. Once Carter joined us, we went back to the van so Mom could clean me up; the poo was on my back.
Once tidied up, we set out to find the French Huguenot church, because I really wanted to see the architecture up close. We found it, and it was impressively old and architectural. It also had a small, lovely cemetery on the grounds. Carter advised that we make it to the Market, which was nearby.
The Market is a row of open-sided buildings that vendors set up in, a la flea market style. Much of it was flea market fare, but there were some more interesting items as well. Carter had misinformed us that this building was the same thing as the Slave Mart (it's not). But not being able to find any mention of this (incorrect) fact anywhere on the premises, I wandered upstairs to the Museum for the Daughters of the Revolution to ask about the building's historical significance. They said that, while it wasn't the Slave Mart (that was a block over), many slaves did work in the building, which was dedicated to the selling of produce and livestock.
Some where along the way, Mom asked a local guy about the the crazy birds overhead. He said they were grackles, which are bit smaller than crowes and a dark-brown in color. They have rounded tails and a distinctive song!
Carter had stayed behind to nap in the van while we checked out the Market. Once we'd seen it all, we returned to the van to regroup. Carter suggested we go to the Waterfront Park, and so we did. It was lovely, with a pier-like area over the water with benches and swings. Adjacent to that was a park with a huge pineapple fountain. When we went out on the pier, it became obvious that the rain was on its way back in a hurry. Before we headed back, Carter noticed that a group of seagulls were diving at the water, and the water boiled in the spot they were diving at. I said it was a school of fish, which I guess it was, because a couple of porpoises were moving through there as well. This gave us all a thrill, and we stood watching them for longer than we should have, since we wound up getting quite soaked before making it back to the van.
Mom and I came to Charleston with the idea that we might be able to make some meager contribution to Carter's household arrangements, so while we were rained out, we went to the Store for the Habitat for Humanity that Carter had heard about. That was a new one on me, and it was pretty cool, but we didn't have much luck there... only a mirror and wooden trivet shaped like fish.
For dinner, we went back to our hotel to eat fried chicken and kick it for a bit. Then I took Carter home while Mom and Madison stayed behind to watch Ocean's 11 (...hmm). At any rate, we had a great time kicking it and playing with Pootie. I hung out with another tenant in Carter's building for a while, and he also strongly felt that, after 2 years there, the situation looked worse than it actually was, and things were improving overall. That was encouraging. I also briefly met Carter's girlfriend, Courtney, before heading back to the hotel.
Carter and Courtney were going out on Friday night, so on Saturday morning, Mom, Maddie, and I went to do the sort of touristy stuff Carter was less enthusiastic about. We parked downtown and started out on foot at the Rainbow Row. We found a little greenspace, Washington Park, with some nice statuary. We walked the length of Charleston's longest cobblestoned street on our way to the real Slave Mart. It will soon be open as a museum, but I wanted to see the building anyway. It turns out that the slaves we actually sold on the steps of the Old Exchange Building, which we also found just a few blocks away.
We came upon a large Irish gathering on the steps of the Hibernian Hall, complete with a band and fully decked-out bagpipers. After hanging out in that scene for a bit, we disentangled ourselves to head back to the van by way of gawking at the houses on our way down the street.
Back at the van, Mom popped into the shop in front of which our van had been parked. She had scoped a cool piece of architectural salvage earlier and went back for it. Meanwhile, Madison and I stood out in front of the shop with the pleasant and docile shop dog, Buster Brown. Buster musta smelled Pootie Pop on my jeans, because while I was turned the other way gawking at another house, Mr. Brown marked my leg. I only realized when I heard Madison laughing into her hand and saw she was pointing at my now-moistened pant leg. She saw the whole thing and let it happen while I was looking away...argh! Funny, funny. But did anyone want to go back to the hotel so I could change? Of course not... and I'm supposed to be some kind of hippie, right?, so I let it ride. This turned out to be for the best.
Around then, Carter called to say he was up and getting ready. Mom didn't want to go wait around his place while he got ready, so we hopped in the van and drove around. We quickly happened upon this park we hadn't seen yet. It had a semicircular set of steps with 4 old, ornate columns, attached to nothing. Mom asked a lady walking her dog what the story was on the steps and columns. They were the front of the old Charleston Museum, all that remained after it burned. This made for a cool backdrop for a game of frisbee with the Madison souvenir frisbee that was her plate at the Crab Shack. Unfortunately, the backside of the steps was grown up with some shrub with giant thorns. I found this out after the frisbee kept being drawn into it like the Bermuda Triangle. Finally we had to give up on frisbee because the third romp among the 2 inch thorn-spikes was really quite enough for me. By then, it was time to rendezvous with Carter and Courtney anyway, so we headed back to the hood.
On the radio the previous evening, I had heard that Folly Beach was having a craft fair and music for St. Patrick's Day. We went back to James Island, and first went to the Folly Beach Goodwill. There we found a dresser thing that was perfect for Carter. He also found a microwave and got some bath towels and a couple of pillowcases. We loaded our booty in the van then went to the craft fair.
The setup was small, but there were some lovely items from the local artisans. I found a cool ceramic spoonrest for Andrew there. Madison got a nifty cat picture with her allowance she'd been saving for the trip. The park was next to a pier over a marsh and out over the water. We strolled down that way, but we all decided we wanted to go back to the washout.
We spent the rest of the afternoon playing at the beach. Carter had brought Pootie, who was absolutely hysterical in the sand. She and Madison had lots of fun playing in the sand together. Carter and Madison tried to play a game of psuedo-lacrosse (scoop without a stick and light-duty), but the wind made it extremely difficult. We adults had been sitting on a retaining wall made from railroad ties, so when we got up, we had creosote all over the backs of our pants. Everyone else's pretty much brushed off except mine; I'd gotten it especially thoroughly. That was okay, I rationalized, since a dog had already peed on those pants that day.
For dinner, we decided we needed to get shacktacular again on our last night in town. Fun was had by all, even when Madison flipped over and fell out of an airchair the restaurant had out on the deck... whew! Walking back to the van, Madison noticed I had something on the back of my pants that wasn't creosote. It was globs and spatter of what appeared to be more bird poop! As I was trying to wipe it all off, I discovered pickle relish in the mix and figured out that it was tartar sauce. But where did it come from? No one had any with their food, and we were pretty much in and out. Who knows. But those jeans had had it!
We left Carter and Courtney to go back to the hotel to pack for our early morning departure. I got my stuff together and then went back to Carter's. After Carter and his neighbor, Jimmy, unloaded Carter's Goodwill treasures, Carter, Courtney, and I set out for the Charleston Pour House to see New Monsoon.
Once we made it in, New Monsoon rocked my socks off! I was DD that night, so it was solely the music that made me boogie like that. It was also extremely cool to see a show with my brother again, now that he can't leave SC and I live in Memphis. I hope to catch those guys again soon!
So, after running around Charleston all day since 7am, I finally crawled into bed after the show at 3am. Our wake-up call was a 6am, and I had us packed up and on the road by 7am. I took an hour nap on the way to Asheville, that resulted in some directional confusion - no biggie. Then once we were on 75N toward Ky, I napped for almost an hour before Mom woke me up and told me she thought she had missed our exit (she had). I checked the map, and the upcoming exit would work also, so we got off there. This turned out to be a curvy 2 lane road along the ridgetop in the Daniel Boone National Forest. It also ran right by Cumberland Falls State Park. I saw it on the map but figured it would require a hike or some major detour to check them out. But, it turns out, they we just off the road, so we pulled in to walk around and take pictures. It was an exceedingly pleasant little diversion.
From Cumberland Falls, it wasn't too much further until Hodgenville. We didn't roll in until 6pm, though - 11 hours on the road. At mom's, I cleaned out her van and repacked my stuff in my car. By 7pm, I was back on the road with Madison, headed down to highway to Memphis. It took 6 hours to get home that night, for some reason, but we made it. We had spent 17 of the last 24 hours in a car!
It was a whirlwind extravaganza, but that's how we do. Charleston was awesome! It was great to visit with family! New Monsoon is my new favorite band!
...And now we begin planning for the family vacation in June, to Gulf Shores, with our pals, the Beckham family!
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 03/25/07.
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