…from 3 days of floating on the Jack’s Fork near Eminence. We had a great time and didn’t get too sunburned. More pictures will be on facebook once we finish sorting through them!
3 posts in one day???
…it must be a record! I’m just giving you something to do while Andy and I are gone for a few days. Here’s how we spent our evening:
This will do…
…for a great float/camp trip for the next few days!
Thanks Elizabeth!!!!
…and thanks to everyone else who made my b-day awesome!
Year 26
Brooke is going to be updating her blog a bit more often. As in. Every day, and hopefully with a picture! You should check out her blog for details!
She also has a picture and description up from her car over the weekend, which had its windows broken out by hooligans…grrrrrr… Thankfully, car insurance paid for most of it and it’s all taken care of now, but when you’ve got multiple weddings to attend over Memorial Day weekend, having to deal with such things is an annoyance.
Happy Birthday To Me…
So…..I woke up Saturday morning to my driver’s side windows both being smashed out. Our cars are always parked on the street, so it’s really not all that surprising, but not how I expected to spend my Saturday morning. So, I made the police report, settled everything with the insurance company, and have new windows, but this morning I had to drive to Chesterfield to have an estimate made of the damages to the inside from the glass and rain. As far as I know, the punks (or “knuckleheads” according to the officer who took my report) have been apprehended and are being charged with breaking the windows out of multiple cars.
As far as this blog goes, my plan is to try to update more frequently since I feel like I consume an awful lot of internet information without putting anything back out there, so I’m trying to even out my kharma a little. And I needed another good reason to purchase our Nikon D60 and this seemed like a good enough one! Comment often and enjoy!
U2charist
So, as many of you know, Brooke and I are currently (and temporarily…) running the contemporary worship service, 1040 Connection, at Webster Hills United Methodist Church, where we’ve been attending since moving to St. Louis. As part of this, we got the crazy idea of doing the “U2charist,” which is essentially as the name sounds: a communion service built around the music of the Irish rock band, U2.
We had talked about doing it for awhile now, but after we took control of the song choices last September, we got to thinking about when to make it happen. Somehow, Maundy Thursday (or Holy Thursday) seemed appropriate, as it marks the Last Supper (i.e. the first communion).
Anyway, here’s the song list, for those that know the music of U2:
Prelude/Postlude:
During the service:
During Communion:
We are also including this document in the bulletin as an insert that (briefly) points out some lyrics and what they may mean from a theological standpoint.
Anyway, it should be a fun night, and we’ve put a lot of work into it. We’ll probably do it again at the beginning of July, just as a regular Sunday morning service.
Trip down to Hot Springs
That’s a picture from I-55 in northern Arkansas. Terrible place. Seriously. Their Department of Transportation has got to be the most inept in the nation. See the clear skies?! It snowed the DAY BEFORE and there was ice all over the place. It took us over an hour to go 15-20 miles toward Memphis.
There are more pics…feel free to check those out, of course…
Either way, that was on the way down to Hot Springs, AR. Brooke decided she wanted to go on a little trip, just to get away for a little bit. It’s a relatively easy drive (minus the aforementioned DOT from Arkansas), and a place neither of us had ever been to.
Anyway, it was a pretty good trip! Brooke made reservations at Hilltop Manor, a bed-and-breakfast right by the national park. The weather was pretty awesome, for the most part, so we spent Monday walking around the town, went up to the top of the mountain and went up in the observation tower, then walked along Bath House Row (and toured an old bath house maintained by the National Park Service), and otherwise chilled for the rest of the day in front of a fire place, reading and gaming (on the DS, of course :-)).
The trip back was less eventful than the one down, so that was a big plus. In any event, I’m glad to be back and catch up on all the TV shows we didn’t get to last week. And, maybe even get some science done tomorrow…
Another Mardi Gras down…
Mardi Gras went off without a hitch, for the most part… I’ve put up some pictures on Picasa of the event, for those that are interested.
In summary, Kristen, Jake, Sarah, Ben and I went down to the parade and saw some pretty neat floats…and LOTS of people (shown above). The weather was in the 30s F, but since the sun was out, it actually felt pretty good out there! We ended up having a little less than 40 people come by our place after the parade was done…Brooke’s jambalaya didn’t last long! Most people were gone by 4:00, allowing me to fall asleep by 6:00, then wake up again to finish “Monk” and “Psych” with the wife later.
Overall, it was a good day! Lots of clean-up had to be done on Sunday after church, but oh well…it’s only once a year… 🙂
Neuroscience 2008
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| From Neuroscience 2008 |
Well, I got back from DC today…was there for a few days for the Society for Neuroscience 2008 convention (last year’s was in San Diego), where I presented a poster of some data I’ve been working on (and hope to get published soon!). Overall, the poster presentation (which was Sunday morning) went beautifully well. Last year, I presented later in the conference, so there were less people around to listen to me make stuff up… This year, however, was earlier so there was much more interest and, in general, many more people.
Other than that, I looked at lots of other posters and talked with some folks from different labs, checking into some Postdoc opportunities. I got some good information, and some good ideas as to where to go next (with my research and my career).
We did get some sight-seeing in, though, specifically getting to see the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (w00t!) and the National Mall (and all their monuments…). They’re all pretty self-explanatory, and you can check out pictures here!
Oh, and I also got to see Jeff Lin. Good times.