kareina

Several days have slipped by without posting as I've travelled around the greater Seattle area visiting friends.

Monday evening I went to hear Tania perform in Tacoma. This show had a better turn-out than did the Friday show, and she'd had another couple of days to recover from her jet lag from her return from Ireland. She did a fabulous job, as she always does, with a good mix of old favourite songs and things I'd not heard before. (When she did the set list she deliberately selected stuff she hadn't done on Friday, since I'd told her I'd try to catch Monday's show too). The other audience members looked surprised when I actually managed to sing along on the chorus of the Russian song about the birch tree and the rabbits. But then, I bought the tape upon which she has that song recorded many years ago, so I'd have been surprised if I couldn't.

Tuesday morning was spent at my sister's house with family, then Tuesday afternoon I accompanied Tania over the water to the Indian Reservation upon which she lives. This was much fun--we cooked yummy food (including fresh bread) and went for a walk into lovely down town Suquamish, where I saw Chief Seattle's grave. I hadn't known that the city was named after a person before, so the trip was educational as well as fun. This is the first time she and I have had that much time to just hang out together, though we've known one another since I was still in highschool. We've always lived in different cities, so only see one another when one or the other of us is visiting the area. I'm very glad I made the time for it, it was truly a highlight of my trip so far. Tuesday evening I caught the ferry back over the water and went to josiestraka's house for the evening. It was good to get to spend a bit more time with her and her family before leaving town.

Wednesday I returned to my sister's house during the day and enjoyed the chaos which is caused by the houseful (remember that my Australian step-sister, her husband, and their two children are also visiting just now and that my mother, sister, her husband, and two children live here--this adds up to four kids under five years of age in the house). In the evening I went down to Olympia to see maeva00, ariadne3, and Bill. It was a delight to see them, and see how much has changed at their house (I saw it last many, many years ago, soon after he bought the place). They fed me squash blossoms, whcih they coated with fresh egg from their hens and a spiced breading and then cooked over an open fire. Yum!

I stayed the night at their place, and this morning as I finished eating breakfast I received a call from my sister, wondering if I could bring the car back as the other two were in use already, and she wanted to do some grocery shopping today. So I hurried home (only 1.5 hour drive!) and took a moment to look at e-mail while she and the kids were at the store. Then I borrowed the car again and went over the water the other direction to the Microsoft campus to visit with an old friend from highschool on his lunch break. I took the scenic route back from that trip as I'd noticed that the bridge over the lake was completely backed up with parked traffic in the towards-Seattle direction, and I didn't much like the thought of sitting in a hot car on a freeway not moving. So I told Mom's GPS to guide me to Bothell, and then once I was there, asked it to guide me home. It was still hot waiting for the traffic lights, but with lights one is certain that it will change and you will start moving again. There are no such guarantees when traffic stops on a bridge.

In the morning the whole family will be going to a berry farm to pick raspberries and celebrate my oldest nephew's fourth birthday. In the afternoon there will be further birthday celebrations at the house, and at night I board a plane to Chicago, where my cousin from Racine will pick me up and take me to Wisconsin to see family members I've not seen since I was 16. If there is anyone else in Seattle who wants to see me before I go, please let me know ASAP--tomorrow is my last chance. (I'd be ok with missing some of the afternoon birthday stuff to see people, if it comes down to that, but I don't think I'm going to miss the berries in the morning.)

I've had a peasant couple of days of travel. Got a ride from my knight to Longbeach, were we enjoyed the hospitality of a rented beach house with josiestraka and her family/friends. This included several long walks along the beach, much good food, and good company. The drive out to the beach house included such highlights as a stop at "Dismal Niche", which name was truly irresistible. Apparently this was the place that Lewis & Clark's party spent many days trapped due to torrential downpour before they could commence their return journey, having successfully found the Pacific Ocean.

Today I've made the trip up to Seattle, and am at my sister's house. I can be reached on my mother's cell phone (206) 484-5960 for those of you who are local--I'd like to see as many folk as I can before I leave town on the 3rd. My oldest niece is now nearly five years old, and she seems to take more after me than her mother in terms of personality. She helped me bake a loaf of bread tonight (I mean that literally--she was truly helpful). Note, she make take after me, but she looks just like her mother did at that age. You can't fool me, sure the eyes are brown and not blue, and the hair may be brown not blond, but that is my little sister, I am certain of it.

Months ago we decided to see what happens if you analyse my samples for their lead isotopes using the Laser ICPMS. Apparently it is a very useful technique for the ore-deposits people working in areas not too far from where my samples were collected. The results turned out to be unexpectedly different from other Tasmanian rocks thus analysed, but they also showed that it isn't worth my doing an in-depth study of this nature. After we did that bit of work the guy helping me with it suggested that I write up a paragraph or two on what we did and what the results were and send it to him for editing. I did, and months elapsed wherein he was to busy to do the editing. Finally he suggested that I meet with him and we could do the re-write together. So in two sessions, yesterday and today, we got a reasonable rough draft together, and then I spent another hour or two cleaning it up, making the sentences flow smoothly, inserting references and the like. I've just sent it off to my advisor (and a copy to the one who has been assisting me with this, that he can check to see if the edits introduced any errors). 981 new words for the thesis, and a box on the to-do list ticked off.

I think there might be time for a walk with baronsnorri before clovis_t and I go to visit his parents for dinner and meet a cousin visiting from Scotland. If I'm really lucky I'll have energy to return to uni work after dinner...

Today is Father's Day (at least in Australia--I don't know if it is the same in other countries), so clovis_t invited his parents over for lunch. ( more details of the day, and of lunch--yay!, food! )

All in all it was lovely to have them over. The food was good, and the company nice. However, it did mean rather less uni work accomplished today than I would have liked. I did some calculations in the morning before they arrived, and more this evening after they left, but alas, can't report any success yet. There are any number of techniques which *might* wind up giving me an estimate of temperature and pressure for these samples, and some of them work, for some of the samples, but not the ones I've tried today. And the clock is ticking, with only this week left to see if I can manage to find something that will work before I have to give up and simply report on the results that already exist. Pity there are still some areas with no results yet...

Spent this morning getting started on chapter three, which meant needing to spend some time creating figures, which meant spending quite a bit of time fighting with ArcMap (which program I've never been properly introduced to, but have sort of half learned to do a few basic tasks on my own) trying to tell it that the the data I obtained from the departmental computer for Tasmania geographical information (coast lines, rivers, roads, etc) is *not* in an "unknown coordinate system", but actually uses the same Australian grid as that under which the samples were collected. Alas, despite some clear directions in the program "help", the buttons that are meant to be there simply didn't exist, and I was unable to do it. Eventually, I decided to have the samples also plot as "unknown coordinate system" as well, and lo and behold, suddenly both the outline of Tasmania and the samples plot in the correct place with respect to one another! I now know where on the coast these samples were collected (some back in 1984, some in 2000, but all by people who are currently in the department, so there is a chance I can get photos of the rocks in the wild, if they can find them).

Once I figured out where the samples came from, I started the writing, and only had time for about 300 words before it was time for clovis_t and I to head to his parent's house for "tea" (which is what Australian's call their evening meal, even though for many families, his included, no tea is consumed). We had a lovely evening--there was one other guest, Mike, who is down visiting from Adelaide to help Peter with some tasks in his vineyard for a bit (I think in trade, Peter having just returned from a trip to help out with Mike's family's vineyard up there).

The conversation flowed, the food was good, and I made good progress in converting that lovely blue wool knit dress into a cardigan--the front is slit & hemmed, and half of the neck line cut and hemmed. I still need to finish the other half of the neck, either slit the sides to the hips, or add side-gores to give it a bit more room in the legs, lengthen the sleeves (using the fabric from the turtle-neck I removed from it), and add pockets and buttons and it will be ready.

After we arrived home again (around 22:00!) I settled back in to work, and managed to pretty much double today's words written, so my total for the day is 656 words and three figures/tables referenced. Not bad for a day where I took a number of hours off in the evening (which is normally my best working time). Time for yoga & bed!

I have just received word that my sister in Melbourne has safely brought my nephew, Casper, into the world. She tells me that he is not named for my favourite comic-book hero, but rather "Casper means master of the treasure or wealthy man (hopefully this means he’ll be able to support us in our retirement!), and was one of the three wise men who brought gifts to Jesus."

In other news, I slacked most of the day, letting the excuse of cramps so minor that most women wouldn't have noticed allow me to fall into some fiction till the book finished. Upon surfacing I still managed to put another 501 words and one new figure reference into the thesis, but I discovered a mistake made months ago, so now I know what tomorrow's task shall be as I re-do the calculations based upon the wrong data last time I did them. Sigh. But at least I found it, and hearing that my sister has that longed for second child brings me much joy, even though I'd rather experiance any number of unpleasant things than have a child myself...