Natural History Museum trip

Last weekend we went to the National Museum of Natural History - such a cool museum. One of the exhibits is the hyperbolic crochet coral website (http://crochetcoralreef.org/). This is SO cool. It's basically a giant coral reef, complete with the coral itself and animals like anemones, all crocheted out of different colors. Here are some pics:

This is so neat - look at the fan coral, and brain coral.. those look super realistic!


A more colorful section of the reef....

This part looks like animals on the reef...

We also went to the annual orchid show, which the NMNH puts on with the US Botanic Garden. Pictures don't do this exhibit justice.

Catsphere

It's hard to be a cow-eating, dog-toy stealing, dog-bed hogging kitty. Sometimes you just need a nap.

Seriously?!

As if the bazillions of bugs in our house (we literally remove between 20 and 200 a day - STILL) weren't enough, we now have BLACK WIDOW SPIDERS preying on them. In our house. I don't have a problem with spiders, or with poisonous spiders, but NOT in my house!


Here she is- currently eating a stinkbug. I'm glad she's occupied at least! She's now taken up residence in a spice jar, with a nice secure lid out on our porch.

Holy Robins, Batman

I saw 20 robins in the neighbor's yard today! Hooray for Spring!

Our journey North

We set out on a fine February day for a journey north...little did we anticipate how we'd have to pass through frozen wastelands on the way to a birthday party...

Starting out...sunny and 50...

A few hours later...still sunny and mid-40's, but what's that on the horizon...


Getting cooler and cloudier...hmmmm....


Freezing point! But still some blue sky...


*sigh* no more blue sky...and why can't we see the mountains anymore?

Oh yeah...that's why-welcome to Siberia!

What to call your teacher

I always start the semester by telling my students to call me Stephanie. Dr. Le**ard-Pi!on is a mouthful, and before I had the PhD Professor Le**ard-Pi!on was a mouthful too. I've told my students they can call me "Professor" if Stephanie's too informal for them, but to please not call me Mrs. Pi!on (my grandmother), Mrs. Le**ard (my other grandmother), Miss Stephanie (oh, where do I begin, for goodness' sake I'm not a kindergarten teacher), or just, perhaps most annoyingly, "Miss".

Here's what my students call me (from assignments and in class):

Mrs. Pi!!on
Mrs. Le**ard
Mrs. Li!!ard-Pi!on
Mrs. Stephanie
Miss
Miss Stephanie
Miss Professor
Prof Steph (I think I like this one best)
Prof Mrs. Le**ard-Pi!on (um)
Professor (I really have no problem with this)
Ummmmmmm...
Le**ard
Ma'am (ack! what did I do to deserve this?!)

I do get it- professors are intimidating, but I mean, come on. Can you at least try to learn my name? I know all of their names!

Snow in Virginia

We finally got snow last week - although we missed the storm this week, and now it's mostly all melted. It was our first real snowfall south of the Mason-Dixon line, and it was an experience.... we were slightly unprepared by how poorly the roads would be treated and managed. We took the afternoon (which was a snow day) to shovel the snow off the driveway. It was a loong, looooong driveway. Just saying.

After we shoveled the driveway, we took the opportunity to shovel the road. Apparently we really like shoveling. The plow came by to help, but did more damage than not...

Apparently it does snow in Virginia!

See? That driveway is at least five miles long. Really.

The driveway in progress... yes, I'm proud of it.

Our friendly neighbor who helped us shovel the top of the hill on the road. Apparently he likes shoveling, too.

Oh the happy shovelers. Can't say I'm too unhappy it's all melting though!