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...

As forced by my sister...

I absolutely refuse to perpetuate this ridiculous tag, but Jenny absolutely demanded that I at least post seven things about myself. So to appease her...

1. The first thing about me is that I absolutely adore my kitten, Inkling Erdos (named after a very famous mathematician who happens to share her birthday). I cannot tell you how amazing it is to have her around. And I love that she can be both playful and cuddly. She tends to get very playful at night, and seeing as how that tends to be when I am home we play a lot. And she has developed the adorable habit of vertical pounces. But when she is in a cuddly mood I just love it. She is even getting into the habit of cuddling with me while I knit without eating the yarn.



2. I am absolutely addicted to books. I go through these moods where I only like to read certain kinds of books. Sometimes it is fantasy and science fiction. Sometimes it is classics or Jane Austen. And sometimes it is sappy romances. Sometimes I even go on fanfiction crazes. I put on my iPod, curl up in my big chair, try and coax Inkling into my lap, and read for hours.



3. I love to write, even if I'm not very good at. I gave up on the idea that I could write poetry when I was 15, but writing stories has stuck with me. I have three stories (one finished) posted on a Harry Potter fanfic site, one story (or almost 80 pages of it) that I have given up for my sanity, and one that I recently started and am quite excited about. It has long been a secret ambition of mine to have a book published. As a side note, I also have begun work on a math book, but I figured most of you would not think that qualified.



4. I am addicted to movies and certain television shows. I have so far been able to prevent myself from actually buying a TV. I do this because I don't want the temptation of getting cable. But this hasn't stopped me from owning a rather large amount of movies that I watch on my computer (though I do try to shop the previewed movies at the video store so that they are much cheaper). I also regularly watch several TV shows that are posted online (namely, Numb3rs, Heroes, and Life) and re watch Charmed (of which I own all the seasons on DVD). I like watching these shows because most of them I have seen and I tend to either work on math or knit while watching them.



5. I am sickeningly addicted to weird weather. Well, weird from the Arizonan point of view. I love snow and thoroughly enjoy walking in it. Which means I nearly freeze to death, but at least I'm happy. I also love fog. Yesterday was an extreme fog advisory and I loved it. It was like walking in a cloud. And it is one of my dearest wishes to get lost in a forest when there is a lot of fog. I also love thunderstorms. In this respect, at least, I sometimes miss Arizona. No other place has storms that even compare. I get really excited when there is even a little lightning here. But generally I really like the weather here. And I am very excited that tomorrow is supposed to be the first big snowfall. I plan on taking Inkling out to play in it (she's going to freak out, but I'll be sure to take pictures).



6. I love spending time with family and friends, and it kills me that I don't get to see my family all that much anymore. In fact, it has been so long since I have seen Jenny and her family that I'm going to skip out next semester to go visit them (don't worry Mom, I'm going during spring break, not skiping classes). I also spend an inordinate amount of time on the phone with them. And as for keeping up with friends, I pretty much have something almost every night during the week because I love them all so much. Even if it is just sitting at home and watching Charmed (for some reason that tends to cheer a lot of my friends up). But I love my friends here. And the ones from the department are really great about respecting my standards. You should have seen their faces the one time I got a daiquiri (virgin, of course). I got many cries of "Meghan, it's not worth it!" before they figured out it was virgin. I also really miss my friend Beki. She just started her mission in Canada last month. But at least I finally get to write to a missionary (something I really need to do today, come to think of it).



7. Am I done yet? Okay, one more thing... have I mentioned that I really like Math yet? I even read pop math books (books about math in the real world that are written to be accessible to the general populace). Often I have been questioned about what I wanted to do with math in the world. The short answer is that I want to teach. I love helping people finally get a difficult concept. But I like math for itself, not for what I can do with it. The best way I can put it is to quote a great mathematician, G.H. Hardy. "No discovery of mine has made, or is likely to make, directly or indirectly, for good or ill, the least difference to the amenity of the world." But lest you thing my life's work will be completely useless, I offer one more quote, this one from John Tierney. "This is the remarkable paradox of mathematics. No matter how determinedly its practitioners ignore the world, they consistently produce the best tools for understanding it." As examples, the math that Einstein used to formulate the Theory of Relativity was produced 50 years before with no concept of the uses it would be put to, and the math that enabled to computer to be built was produced beginning several hundred years before to answer as simply question with no apparent value outside itself.

Halloween Madness

Well, after having been called to task for not posting often enough (and all I have to say is that I have been crazy busy, not to mention sick) I wanted you all to see what craziness I dressed up as for Halloween. I dressed as green, as in the color. Nothing special. Basically I just had fun putting as much green as possible on my body. And can I tell you, it took forever to get the glitter and hair spray off. My bath water was solid green. And I'm pretty sure I still have green residue in places. I even painted my fingers and toes bright green. It was great fun. And Jenny, I hate you right now. I'll answer you crazy tag, but it will stop with me... and you'll have to give me a few days.