My Flowers

So I don't know how many of you know, but I have a strange obsession with Gerber Daisies. They are just so beautiful, and I love the bright colors that they come in. Now, in my life it has turned out that I have always had to buy my own flowers (except for a couple times when girlfriends got some for me), and it just isn't as much fun when you have to buy the flowers for yourself. But I now can officially say that a boy gave me flowers. And they are gorgeous. And so I want to share with you all my beautiful flowers.

I love the captial building

Most especially when it is shrouded in fog. Actually, I just like fog in general. I have a recurring urge to get myself lost in a forest whenever there is fog, which is quite often in Madison. It just makes everything so pretty and ethereal.

This is the apartment that I will soon be moving in to. We go tomorrow to actually pick out the apartment that we will have. Of particular interest is the large living room that will soon hold our piano, the gigantic walk-in closet, the dishwasher, and the washer and dryer in the apartment. If you cannot tell, I am way excited by the prospect. Because of my cat, I will have the room on the right as it has its own bathroom. Lisa will have the room on the left that is attached to the main bathroom. We have decided that the living room will be decorated in reds, oranges, and yellows. Which means I finally get to buy and hang those posters by Andy Warhol that I am absolutely in love with. I think most everyone will finally be happy that I have a room in my apartment that is not green... Now we just have to decide which kind of cat friendly blinds and curtains we are going to put on the sliding door. As we have to be on the first floor because of the piano, these are absolutely necessary, but I am slightly worried that Inkling will have a field day with any kind of hanging cloth... Hmmm, problem. Anyways, I just wanted to share my excitement. (And this seemed much funner than working on my complex homework like I should be doing right now.)

Ice Crystals and Hail

So the Ice Quake was on Wednesday afternoon, and on Tuesday we went from warm enough to melt all the snow in the morning to pouring hail in the afternoon to dropping 50 degrees by that night.

The pouring hail was quite interesting. And it hurt. We got so much hail that day that it looked like we had 2 inches of snow on the ground, only it was all hail. We also got some quite pretty ice crystals forming on the windows. So all together the weather has been just a little bit interesting recently...

Madison's "Earthquake"

And just because I thought you wouldn't believe it from me, here it is from the paper:

Lake Mendota ice quake shakes UW and MadisonBrief tremor hits shoreline buildings on ThursdayDavid Medaris on Thursday 01/31/2008 3:44 pm


There's a lot of expansion and contraction happening out on the big ice sheets that cover Madison's lakes in winter.Credit:Kristian Knutsen
A UW-Madison news release reports that this afternoon's brief tremor may be attributable to an ice quake. According to the release, dozens of employees in buildings along the Lake Mendota shoreline phoned UW police and the facilities staff to ask about the shaking, which occurred at about 12:50 p.m., lasted for two or three seconds and registered on a seismometer at the geology department.
The release goes on to state that ice quakes (or a cryoseism) are often synchronized with loud cracking noises, "are caused by large shifts in ice and are most commonly triggered by drastic temperature changes" similar to the significant thermometer variations of recent days, and may result in pressure ridges or other fractures in the ice.
Such events are not without precedent. There's a lot of expansion and contraction happening out on the big ice sheets that cover Madison's lakes in winter. One of the most dramatic such occurrences happened a little before noon on Jan.15, 1948, when seismographs measured a tremor at 3.8 on the Richter scale.
That's not much by the standards of California or other active earthquake zones, but press accounts of the time noted that the shaking was "accompanied by loud reports of breaking ice fields" and "had the sound and force of a blast." An account in the American Journal of Science ascribed the quake to "an ice fracture on Lake Mendota," and noted that it "was of sufficient intensity to shake some plaster off the ceiling of an office and to crack the sewer drain of one fraternity house."
The day after that tremor of 60 years ago, a group of geology students discovered "a four-foot overthrust in ice 1-1/2 feet thick."
Today's shake-up was minuscule compared to the reports from 60 years ago: UW-Madison geology Prof. Cliff Thurber estimates today's brief tremor at less than 0.2 on the Richter scale -- enough to be noticed, but well short of calamity.
The UW-Madison news release noted no reports of damage as a result of today's tiny quake.

Christmas in Tucson

Making cookies with Grandma. It was a messy project.
Becca's definitely got her Grandpa wrapped around her little finger. I loved this picture.

The Boyle family showing off their Santa kisses. One of my favorite Christmas traditions.
My little dancing princess showing off her favorite of the new dress-up clothes she got.
Becca had so many things to look at she didn't know what to do with herself.
This is the day I dressed Jessie. Can you tell that my favorite color is green?
She is just so cute it is ridiculous.

I really have been lazy, haven't I? My excuse it that I was in Tucson for two weeks and didn't want to post since all my pictures were on my computer and I couldn't connect it to the internet. But that is just an excuse. I spent Christmas with my parents and Nicole's family in Tucson. And boy was it warm. Thankfully, it has been quite warm in Madison (It's 35 right now), so it hasn't been too big of an adjustment. But there is still snow on the ground that hasn't melted yet. Dirty, yucky snow, but snow. It is nice to be back, though. My cat (she really is too big to be a kitten now) has rarely left my side. And she has taken to guarding the door, as if I am going to leave her again. It is absolutely adorible.

My Weekend

So let me tell you about my weekend. As if the food poisoning on Friday wasn't enough (it kept me up well past 3 am), I woke up Saturday morning to a glorious snow storm. Now, I was supposed to go get a piano on Saturday with my friend Lisa. I had previously discussed how this might not be the best idea when all of the Midwest was in the middle of a winter storm. But her enthusiasm could not be held back. So I put on all my snow gear and went to go rent the U-Haul. After putting $40 worth of gas in her so that she would make it to and from our destination I proceeded to drive to our meeting point. Normally, I would have made someone else drive, but they were picking out a Christmas tree and so I was meeting them. I planned on making them drive after that, however. Of course, I only made it three blocks before the truck got caught in the snow. Turns out rear-wheel drive and snow don't mix well. I managed to get it to the side of the road (a one-way that is quite busy at all times) and called for help. By the time the two boys got there, I was freezing. After over an hour we finally managed to get it out. This involved backing the truck down the street (of course moving in the wrong direction) through one of the worst intersections in downtown, and turning around in the middle of the intersection. We then drove it back to U-Haul and left it for them (halfway in the parking lot as it got stuck again-but that is their problem.) Of course, Lisa is still devastated. Apparently a snow and ice storm wouldn't have stopped her. I told her next time she can drive the truck. So I spent the next 36 hours determinedly camped out in my apartment. Luckily Church had already been cancelled. I didn't even go down to campus to pick up the rest of my exams so I could finish grading them. This morning I was coming down early to finish my exams, and in the process of trying to catch the bus fell on the ice. It took me an hour to convince myself I hadn't actually broke my finger. It still hurts. A lot. Anyways, my weekend, thankfully, is now over. Hopefully life will get better soon...