blog bankruptcy
OK, so I've fallen enormously behind on this blog and I'm about ready to declare blog bankruptcy. Here's my last-ditch effort to get caught up. I last left off in mid-July. Since then I've done a lot of traveling, including:
Toronto, for the Society for Industrial Microbiology annual meeting. Lots of good networking and learning opportunities. I shared a room with my good friend from graduate school and we spent the weekend after the conference exploring the city, including the zoo. We also visited the CN tower and had dinner in its rotating restaurant. Perhaps the highlight of the trip? Randomly being invited to dinner by a wonderful woman we met in the elevator one evening. We all got along really well and we ended up hanging out together for the rest of the conference. Photos here.
South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska on an excellent road trip with my parents. I will have to revisit this at a later date with an extended blog post, as it was too much fun to condense to a few sentences. The highlight? Devils Tower. Photos here.
Sedona, Arizona for Labor Day weekend. My sister and brother-in-law gracefully treated me to a weekend via their time share points. I was hoping to get talked into the timeshare thing, but the resort didn't even try to meet with me. Oh well, I had a nice time anyway. I spent an evening in nearby Jerome, home of a great art colony. This happened to be the evening of their monthly "Art Walk". But the highlight of the trip was taking a "Tour of the Stars" on my last evening. Our guide had checked the timing of the International Space Station and pointed out where it should appear overhead - and he was right! We watched for the few minutes that it was visible. The other items were all cool, but the ISS took the cake. Photos here (sadly, none from the star gazing event).
Lexington, Kentucky. I was invited back to my undergraduate department to speak at their weekly seminar. Though I frequently return to Lexington to visit with family, this was my first time back on campus since I graduated in 2000. It was great to re-visit with my old professors and thank them for giving me a good foundation. But it was VERY strange to give my seminar in the same room where I took so many challenging classes, with the professors who taught those courses sitting at the desks. Strange, indeed. The department has a great tradition of each graduating class putting their handprints on the wall. It was very exciting to re-visit my handprint. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of this. This trip also corresponding (almost) with my dad's 60th birthday. It was great to have the opportunity to participate in the celebratory dinner with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew and aunt.
Dekalb, Illinois. Last week I was invited by a colleague to present a research seminar for Northern Illinois University's department of Biological Sciences. It was a good opportunity to meet new people and learn about their exciting research.
And coming up? Traveling to St Louis tomorrow for a meeting with a colleague. And then off to Nashville in early November for the annual chemical engineering conference. Whew.
And meanwhile I'm teaching the same course that I taught last fall (Material and Energy Balances), and helping the graduate and undergraduate researchers in my lab plan and interpret their experiments. And I'm enjoying my new piano. Busy times, indeed. Now hopefully I'm caught up and can return to a bi-weekly update. Thanks to everyone for their patience!
Toronto, for the Society for Industrial Microbiology annual meeting. Lots of good networking and learning opportunities. I shared a room with my good friend from graduate school and we spent the weekend after the conference exploring the city, including the zoo. We also visited the CN tower and had dinner in its rotating restaurant. Perhaps the highlight of the trip? Randomly being invited to dinner by a wonderful woman we met in the elevator one evening. We all got along really well and we ended up hanging out together for the rest of the conference. Photos here.
South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska on an excellent road trip with my parents. I will have to revisit this at a later date with an extended blog post, as it was too much fun to condense to a few sentences. The highlight? Devils Tower. Photos here.
Sedona, Arizona for Labor Day weekend. My sister and brother-in-law gracefully treated me to a weekend via their time share points. I was hoping to get talked into the timeshare thing, but the resort didn't even try to meet with me. Oh well, I had a nice time anyway. I spent an evening in nearby Jerome, home of a great art colony. This happened to be the evening of their monthly "Art Walk". But the highlight of the trip was taking a "Tour of the Stars" on my last evening. Our guide had checked the timing of the International Space Station and pointed out where it should appear overhead - and he was right! We watched for the few minutes that it was visible. The other items were all cool, but the ISS took the cake. Photos here (sadly, none from the star gazing event).
Lexington, Kentucky. I was invited back to my undergraduate department to speak at their weekly seminar. Though I frequently return to Lexington to visit with family, this was my first time back on campus since I graduated in 2000. It was great to re-visit with my old professors and thank them for giving me a good foundation. But it was VERY strange to give my seminar in the same room where I took so many challenging classes, with the professors who taught those courses sitting at the desks. Strange, indeed. The department has a great tradition of each graduating class putting their handprints on the wall. It was very exciting to re-visit my handprint. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of this. This trip also corresponding (almost) with my dad's 60th birthday. It was great to have the opportunity to participate in the celebratory dinner with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew and aunt.
Dekalb, Illinois. Last week I was invited by a colleague to present a research seminar for Northern Illinois University's department of Biological Sciences. It was a good opportunity to meet new people and learn about their exciting research.
And coming up? Traveling to St Louis tomorrow for a meeting with a colleague. And then off to Nashville in early November for the annual chemical engineering conference. Whew.
And meanwhile I'm teaching the same course that I taught last fall (Material and Energy Balances), and helping the graduate and undergraduate researchers in my lab plan and interpret their experiments. And I'm enjoying my new piano. Busy times, indeed. Now hopefully I'm caught up and can return to a bi-weekly update. Thanks to everyone for their patience!
posted by Laura at 11:45 AM
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