Sunday, January 28, 2007

The definition of irony

My parents lovingly have purchased me very nice frames for all of my diploma's. You know, the ones with the mats tha have the university seals and all that jazz. Earlier this week, I went to their house to pick up the final (yippee final) frame in my series.

Yesterday we were having company for dinner and I decided that the box with the frame was not nearly as pretty as the frame, so I got out the diploma, framed it, cursed because is was crooked in the mat, reframed it, and hung it up. I decided while I was at I would dust the other two. So I took them down, dusted them and put them back on the shelf. Being very careful of course. I mean on some level, these peices of paper represent the last decade of my life. That's right a decade. Well, somehow, one fell. Very dramictally. 6 feet. Behind a bookshelf. So we moved the bookshelf to retreive it. It's not pretty. Broken glass, bent frame, ugh. The diploma and mat are fine. So the frame actually did it's job, but it has seen better days.

Oh well, those two years in Pennsylvania are just a distant memory anyways...

Saturday, January 20, 2007

how many of me?

Well only one I hope, or else I have some serious identity issues...but I came across this on the web today. www.howmanyofme.com

And there's only one of me. A surprising large number of April's however. And yes, Shelly, there are two of you...blame mom and dad. :)

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

ahhh...texas part 2.

First let me start off by saying:
64 degree average my butt! Those are icicles people. ICICLES! The whole city has gone into a seige. Yesterday, all of the restaurants near the hotel closed at 4pm yes, that's right 4pm. Most of the interstates...yes the INTERSTATES, where shut down for more than 24 hours. They are just starting to reopen, but there are still concerns that they might become dangerous overnight. When it did start to warm up for a little bit, the icicles and ice sheets started to fly off roofs and hit people and things. As far as I can tell, the local NBC station has been broadcasting nothing but weather and weather related news for 48hrs straight. We did get a couple of hours of primetime tv last night, but that was it. As of noon only 6 flights had taken off and I'm thinking there is little hope of me getting home in a timely manner.

Now you might be thinking, oh my poor April, what terrible weather. Well, don't. It's really not that bad, It's cold, but I'm fine with a scarf, no gloves and a winterish coat. The kind of coat we typically start to wear in November when it starts to get "cold" but it's really mild and we're not used to winter yet (remember that's the weather I thought I was coming to). I have not had any perilous slips or falls as would be typical of an ice storm back home. Not even a little oops I should be careful. I walked around in heels today for God's sake, me clutz of the century in heels in an ice storm? Other then the icicles mentioned above, I've seen very little evidence of this "Arctic Blast" that has caused this city to come to a screeching halt.

I've come to one of two conclusions. 1. I live in a invisible bubble were I experience my own, cold wet not ice version of San Antonio, 2. Texans are crazy and think that a slick road qualifies as a state of disaster.

Since I've never experienced this bubble effect before I'm leaning towards number 2, and I'm really thinking I would love to see these people if a real storm hit.

Ahhh....Texas.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

ahh...texas

Some of you may already know how I feel about the great state of Texas. I do believe that I have blogged about it before. It's not that I have anything against Texas or Texans. I have friends who live here, some great colleagues who are Texans through and through, even a relative or three who would bleed longhorn blood. The state is pretty pleasant, and except for one awful bout with a 120+ heat wave, not a bad place to spend time. It's just that...it's not me. I don't feel so bad about this fact given that there has been a book written about this exact subject!

But...as you probably guessed by now, here I am. There was a lidar symposium and I really needed to come and give a talk. San Antonio is a nice city, cool river walk, etc. Such a nice place the AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY decided to have it's giant annual meeting here because, I quote, "We’re here because we know good weather when we see it in the data: San Antonio’s average January high is a comfy 62°F. But San Antonio climatology is not just good, it’s nearly perfect. The city is one of those well-behaved locations in which the first and last frost (averages: 1 December and 25 February) are almost a perfect fit with the standard climatological winter." So why is it that the weather forecast looks like this:
Yes, that is SNOW on Tuesday. SNOW! It hasn't even snowed at home yet! Maybe it's not just me who has bad weather luck. Maybe it's anybody who studies the weather.

So, the conference started today and I took the lidar short course, which was pretty interesting. When I could pay attention that is. I was rather distracted by the carpet in the convention center:

yes, it is a giant (~8 foot tall) Spanish dancer. Flying skirts and all. All over the carpet!

Ahhh....Texas.