Cat Island photos, mom's request...

Mom was asking about the picture on the title bar. Here's the full version of that, and a few others from Cat Island as well...

The full photo. Devil's Point, Cat Island, Bahamas.

Another view. It's very rare to have an overcast day down there. Usually it's so bright all the colors get washed out. It was gorgeous that day though. Even rained on us some.

Nearing the end of a really complicated survey on Cat Island. Not happy.

After finishing a survey of a really simple flank margin cave. Happy.

Total photon occlusion. My hips were too wide to let me get through this hole. After seeing the pictures, it looks like I could have turned on my side and got through. There was a bit more cave beyond this that I had to sketch. Athena, being tiny, and Mylroie, also being smaller and "slimy", got through. I sketched what remained from this position. While doing so, Athena spooked a bat. I'm blocking the only exit, so he had a tight squeeze between my back and the ceiling of this little hole...

We have a winner.

The old man wins. But cookie monster comes out of nowhere and steals your cookie!

Guess where?

Ok Waterstrats, who knows where this is? A cookie to the winner.
Big hint, we used to live there. Don't cheat and look at the file name either.

Old Pics...

Just some old photos I came across when I found an old CD. Probably seen them before, maybe on here, but I didn't feel like checking. Enjoy.

Me on the Morse Mountain Beach (near Popham beach) in Maine. Pretty sure it was Thanksgiving...

Mom on the table lands of Katahdin. What year was that?

Mom and I on the summit of Katahdin. Lots of bugs that time...

Thanksgiving.

I spent my thanksgiving day doing pretty much not the usual things. Woke up when Zephyr jumped up on the bed demanding to go out. Got dressed, went for a 2.5 hour ride out at Southfarm. Took some pictures. On the way home along blackjack, I crossed paths with Kristen who was on her way to Southfarm with Zephyr (in the car) to go for a walk, so I joined them. We walked the entire loop of southfarm, which took about 2 hours. Lovely day for it.
All I've had to eat today has been ramen and a PBJ. I'm so unamerican. Call homeland security, I must be a terrorist...
A couple pictures from the ride:

The Salsa enjoying a view of Skunk Hill.

Found a couple balloons bouncing across a field and took a picture.
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I did.

Gecko

Every now and then I come across a tiny gecko that lives in Hilbun Hall. Athena found this one, and i took some pictures. He lived in the office for most of the day before we lost track of him...
Also, if you haven't before, check out the NASA earth observatory. Their image of the day gallery is full of interesting features of the earth viewed from space (at very high resolution). Some of it is gorgeous (I can't help it, I'm a geology dork) and some of it is just plain cool. Check it out here.
An example...

Pretty underwater sand dunes on the Bahama Bank near Eleuthra, Bahamas.

Christmas Ideas

Mom asked me what I wanted, so here's some ideas. I'll add some more as I think of them, so keep checking. I need to know what you all want too. I've got some ideas for some of you, but suggestions are always good.
Things I could use:
- mini-tripod (this would be ideal)
- rack for the Salsa (this (the "sherpa") is about the only thing that will work since I have disc brakes on it)
- cool rocks you happen to find
- Geologic Map of North America (here, I'm a GSA member, so could get it cheaper)
- anything home-made
more to come...

Southfarm, 11/15

Took a walk out at southfarm this afternoon. Needed to spend some time outside. Haven't had a chance to do that much lately. First time Kristen's been able to go in a while too. Here's Zephyr being cute...

The horse actually ran over to meet Zephyr and tolerated her sloppy kisses. They've met before.

Some nifty looking grass.

One for the old man.

Miles Davis and John Coltrane - So What?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4FAKRpUCYY

Some things...

Kristen is still feeling pretty crappy. About all she can do is stay home and read and sleep a bunch. Poor kid. She' s almost out of medicine too, so we're going to go back to the doctor today to get more and let him have a look to see if things are healing like they should. She hasn't been able to eat much of anything, and she's lost about 10 pounds already. She has a hard time swallowing, so literally all she's eaten since her surgery is 2 popsicles, a tiny bit of bread, a tiny bit of soup, half a baked potato (over several days), and a couple bowls of ice cream. Her throat just hurts too much to eat much more than that. I sure hope she's better soon.
I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but I did finally buy a computer, an HP laptop. So far, it has been a total pain in the ass. It worked fine for about a week, then froze up shortly after getting back from GSA. Aparently the hard-drive broke, so they sent me a new one for free, but the sent me a 40GB one instead of a 80GB that I paid for. I just recently got another 80GB one that works, but now I can't reinstall Windows properly. Some crucial file seems to be missing or something. I'm trying it one last time (takes about an hour and half to install), and if it doesn't do it this time, I think I'll demand a new copy of Windows or an entirely new computer. At least they've been helpful on their end. Too bad the damn thing just doesn't work like it ought to!
Not much else new going on. School still busy and getting busier. The labs I teach are done next week, and it'll be nice to be done with that! Tons of work to do on my thesis of course, and I'll probably be working on that over break. Business has really slowed down at the shop, and there hasn't been anything for me to do. I think a complete overhaul of a nice old Specialized Allez was the last thing I did on Saturday. One of those high end old bikes that was never really ridden, but the owner wanted it checked out anyway.
Well, I'll let you all know how Kristen's doing if anything new comes up. Haven't had much chance to take any pretty pictures or anything. The leaves are pretty right now though...

Nice picture of Zephyr

This picture was taken by Kristen's friend from Philly, Jerrold. I think this is an awesome picture of Zephyr. He's got an awesome camera, which helps, but it's timed well and in focus. I like it.

Out at Southfarm...

Poor Kristen...

Kristen for the past month and half or so has been having really bad sore throats. It got really bad, to the point where she couldn't even swallow water, so she went to the doctor. If you know her, the fact that she went at all says she was feeling pretty bad. They gave her some antibiotics and she felt pretty much back to normal while she was on them. But, once they ran out, it would come back. This happened 3 times. The last time she asked the doctor to recommend her to a specialist, so yesterday afternoon we went to an ear/nose/throat specialist here in Starkville. He was pretty amazed at how bad her throat looked, and was afraid she had an abscessed tonsil. They sent her over to the hospital (Oktibbeha County Hospital) to have a cat scan to make sure. Sure enough, it appeared she had a pretty bad abscess of her left tonsil. So he recommended an emergency tonsilectomy. She had to spend last night in the hospital getting pumped full of fluids and antibiotics via I.V. She's never had an I.V. (me either) or had to spend the night in the hospital (me either). She's probably in surgery right now, and it's supposed to last about 20 minutes. Aparently she's going to feel wiped out for a week or two afterwards. Not suprising, but it really sucks since she's got so much school work to do. She's missing a calc test today and an organic chemistry test on Monday. Poor kid...
I sure hope she gets better quick.
I guess this explains why me or anyone else who's always around her never caught it from her...

a couple pictures...

The Liberty Bell in Philly.

The road bike after pretending it was a 'cross bike...