Buried in the books

So things have been a bit busy lately. We really hit the ground running this semester. I had a lab report due last Friday, and I have a powerpoint presentation to give in my advanced exercise physiology class this afternoon. I feel like I have been literally swimming in articles and textbooks. But after today, things will slow down a bit for a week or so and I can finally come up for air.

I also want to give a shout-out to my friend Michelle (co-owner of Linus the Beagle in my prior post). She is a grad student in cell biology at Duke, and she is taking her prelims on Monday, so she has really been buried in books for a while. GOOD LUCK MICHELLE!!! I'm sure she'll kick butt.

Amazing bargains

After lab on Friday, Ben and I drove to Portsmouth, VA, to spend the night and all of Saturday with his grandmother. Ben's mom was also up there for a visit. Ben's grandmother, whom we call Nana, is 86 years old and healthy as can be. She is very active in her community, belongs to all kinds of organizations, exercises 3 times a week at the YMCA (the budding exercise physiologist in me couldn't be happier about this), and eats lots of chocolate. One of Nana's favorite things to do is to shop at thrift stores, and that's exactly what we did on Saturday. I bought 2 pairs of jeans for $4 and Ben got a batting helmet for $4 to use at the batting cages at the park near our house. In addition, Nana had a pile of clothes at home that belonged to Ben's cousin Nancy, who is a manager at Express and is always having to buy the new merchandise to wear at work. Very luckily, she and I wear the same size, so in addition to my thrift store jeans, I came home with about 10 new shirts, totally free! This is the 3rd time that I've collected free hand-me-downs from Nancy, and she has saved me so much money on clothes this past year. We're hoping to visit Nana again in the spring so that we can go to Williamsburg for some of the 400th anniversary festivities.

Beagle-sitting

This is Linus, the 6-ish year old Beagle belonging to our friends Andy and Michelle. They were out of town this weekend, so we got to take care of Linus. He's a very sweet dog, very well-behaved, and quiet. Well, until we go to the dog park, that is! There, he howls away, like a true Beagle should. Arroo!!!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday. I won't say his age, but my mom and I have kept him younger than his years (good diet and regular exercise don't hurt either). Happy birthday Dad! We love you!

All good things must come to an end

I don't know how it happened; it went by so fast! Yes, I am referring to my winter break. The spring semester starts tomorrow, so it's back to school. I have a feeling this is going to be an intense semester, mostly because my TA load has increased, my advisor wants me to start what will probably be my thesis research, and one of my classes is a monster 3-credit hour lab class that I hear is rather time-intensive. We'll see how it goes.

Cheap Sheep

If you look on the right side of my blog under my list of favorites, you will see that sheep are one of my favorite animals. I was browsing Petfinder.org the other day and found these two girls named Curley and Liz. They are a mother/daughter pair and are available for $100. If I had some land, I'd totally adopt them! But alas, I don't think that our condo complex will go for pet sheep wandering around. They'd be great lawnmowers and fertilizers though. . .

Ben Evans Photographic Studio

Our church bulletin board will soon be featuring pictures and biosketches of all of us Pastoral Council members, as a way for the congregation to get to know who we are. I sit on the Council as the music ministry representative, so I decided to do a music-themed picture. Ben had a regular photo studio thing going on, with various lamps in various positions, trying to find just the right angle. The only problem is that the best pics were taken without the flash, but its hard to hold the camera still enough to get the full exposure. This is one of the better ones.

Wintertime fun in Duke Forest

Ben and I decided to take a walk in Duke Forest today. Yes, that is me in shorts and a t-shirt because even though today is January 6th, it was 75 degrees outside this afternoon. Wintertime my foot! On the plus side, it was nice to be able to take a nature hike without worrying about running into large spiders or other such creatures.

Christmas pics

These are our stockings, lined up on the couch so Santa Claus can fill them with goodies. This year we got lots of Almond Roca, Ghiradelli chocolate squares, disposable cameras, oranges, and us girls got slipper socks. From l-r: Paul, Alicia, Isaac, Andy, Anne, Ben, Beth, and Megan.


















This is the Evans Christmas tree. It was considerably smaller this year than normal. Megan and I decorated the tree.














This is Isaac, our 3-year old nephew with his dad Paul. They were shooting clay pigeons in preparation for the quail hunting adventure I described in a prior post. Isaac is wearing ear protection because the guns can be a bit loud.

Isaac and Paul wearing their new hats on Christmas morning, with Marty in the background.

Never to early to start

It appears that our friends Robert and Emily are already teaching their 1-month old daughter Anna how to drive a car. Look out world! I just hope that the car was not actually IN motion when this photo was taken. . .

Happy New Year!

We celebrated the arrival of 2007 with a bunch of our friends from St. Thomas More. Our friend, Jim Hynes, hosted a party at his house last night which featured good food, good drink, and good company. A particularly noteworthy dish was made by our Italian friend Alessandra. She made Tiramisu and it was definitely some of the best I've ever had.

This morning, we went to Mass at St. Thomas More. I sang and there were also two trumpet players. The music was excellent; the two trumpet players performed a piece at prelude by Henry Purcell, and I sang Salve Regina at Communion, which is a piece that Roger our music director wrote a few months ago. Fr. John was especially appreciative of us musicians this morning. All in all, it was a great way to start off the week and the new year.