If only all weekends were so eventful...

After a frantically fun end-of-week/weekend together, I said goodbye to Waleed on Sunday. Bedtimes ignored, cakes baked, running jokes recalled, cats harassed and psychoanalyzed, nicknames rediscovered, incriminating and indiscriminate times remembered... it didn't take long for us to get back into top form. Had he been in town for more than four days there might have been a riot in the streets or possibly world peace. I was in a celebratory mood on Saturday and we had a great time reminiscing with Luke about the crazy Boston years, also managing to get in some high-quality late night ranting. We also determined that the three of us are not World Cup material when it comes to soccer.

My one sorrow (besides Waleed leaving, naturally)is that my camera was and is nonfunctional, so there are no pictures! However, this tragedy can also be interpreted as a safeguard for my future political aspirations or chances of being respected by my children.

Something tequila can't fix

Some margaritas and I watched the debates last night, along with Luke and Waleed. It's good to have some moral support during painful and indignant times.  As the evening wore on, I admit that my Alaskan father's vocabulary started to dominate...and no, I wasn't saying "doggone it". I was pleasantly surprised by Biden's sincerity and fluent style, although the gay marriage stance was a letdown.

For some perverse reason, I often show my Alaska license as ID.  Invariably, people ask questions about my igloo childhood, The Cold, The Aurora, The Parka, my nonexistent Native Alaskan heritage, moose, and so on.  Now they start a political discussion and I just want to run. I guess this means I should find a different social crutch.

back in Seattle

I think a good general rule is that my blog-silence means that I am either having a fabulous time or I am so busy being productive that ranting is the last thing on my mind.  In any case, I'll try to post some missing pictures of the last few months, so that we can all pretend that I am still summering on the Cape or the Continent.

After a period of not knowing where anything was in my house, I think I've finally readjusted to being back in Seattle.  Woods Hole was busy but fun and it was great to meet so many faculty and students.  I was also extremely inspired to work on my own projects, which is alway nice. Woods Hole has a definite energy that is difficult to explain or replicate. I'm halfway tempted to try and go again next year, but that is contingent on a few hundred things, so we'll see.

Alex and I spent the first part of September in Boston and New York staying with friends.  A huge thank you to Parama, Kalina and Ronan for putting us up! It's hard to believe, but I think Alex has now met the majority of my friends and family (maybe this says something about my social tendencies).  We saw a percussion show at the Blue Note in New York, visited a couple of neuroscience labs, used the power of the euro to refurbish Alex's wardrobe, ate delicious food, survived both Dorchester and Tropical Storm Hannah and generally wandered and caught up with friends.  We also saw Barack Obama (well, his car at least) arrive at David Letterman's studio near Times Square.

I can also highly recommend the Lucky Star bus between Boston and NY Chinatowns...$15 dollars each way and only an hour longer than the train! 

Croatia vacation

For my last week in Europe, Alexander and I rented a car and drove to Croatia. This means that Alex drove while I took pictures out of the car. We decided approximately 24 hours before leaving...we were going to go to Italy, but then we realized that it would be full of Germans and Americans. We even managed to camp in our extremely sophisticated 20 euro tent purchased at Woolworth's (yes, they still exist!). It was extremely low-impact camping, lacking all of the standard features of my previous camping experiences: rain, cold, no car, debatable traveling companions, low-grade fear of carnivorous wild animals. The only catastrophes were relatively minor-- more than 25 mosquito bites on my legs when I managed to kick the tent open (maybe we should have gotten the 30 euro tent) and eating so much squid that we made ourselves sick. We made it as far as the island of Brac on the Dalmatian coast. Delicious food, beautiful landscape and ocean, cheap wine, superb company...we had a great time and at some point I would love to go back and make it all the way to the far south.

Some highlights-

The border between Austria and Slovenia (welcome to Eastern Europe).
The cheese of Island Pag-- the sheep on the island live off of sage that is full of sea salt, which apparently gives the local cheese its excellent flavor.
Camping in cypress forests and olive groves full of wild thyme and mint.
Frantic reading on the beach.
Fresh fish, melon, and Dalmatian dry ham.
The Magistrala highway down the coast.
Drinking cognac on the beach.

Here's a link to some pictures. May contain minor romance.

Return to Woods Hole

Two months goes by quickly...after a sad goodbye (getting up at 4am did not help at all), I arrived in Boston on Friday and got on a bus to Woods Hole in Cape Cod. I'm a teaching assistant in the Marine Biological Laboratory's Methods in Computational Neuroscience course for the next month, then it's back to Seattle. I'm looking forward to the series of lectures, and I think it will be good way to step back and get a broader view of the various problems people are working on. I have plenty of work to do in my spare time; if there will be any spare time remains to be seen. As many know, I have a sentimental attachment to Woods Hole...I met so many friends here over the summer of 2006 (including the most important one I somehow manage to leave in Munich). Sticklet is receiving private German instruction from Alexander and probably being a nuisance.

Never enough time!

It's with huge sadness that I say goodbye to Bill Curtis, who passed away on Sunday. Meeting Bill and his wife Pat Emmons was a highlight of my time in Seattle, and I've spent many wonderful evening hours enjoying their company and easy hospitality. Bill was a remarkable man with a sparkling character...naturally wise, humorous, spiritual, creative and witty...as well as fully capable of drinking his 25ish year-old dinner guests under the table (with homemade limoncello, naturally!). I first met Bill and Pat as an accomplished architectural team, but they quickly became friends, as well as an inspiring example of how to live a graceful life full of love and adventure.

My best wishes and love to Pat, who has lost a truly special man...I feel like I was just getting to know him.

excuses

Okay, so for my vigilant hordes of devoted readers, I admit that I am a bit behind on posting. As much as I would like to maintain the illusion of constant leisure, photo opportunities, food and so on, I can only pull off so much Continental flair at one time. Alexander, of course, is another story entirely. In reality, there's been some monkeying with computers and equipment, waiting for experimental stars to align, me becoming cranky and incoherent in the heat, sporadic (or is it spastic?) fits of typing...all with requisite caffeine abuse. However, I do have some posts and pictures which I will put up in the next few days...