I’m back from vacation, and sitting in my office trying to get used to my new Mac laptop. Our short vacation was great. And Dre and I have passed the one-year marriage milestone with no frying pans being embedded into my skull. Good times!
Here are some photos from today at RIT:
Tomorrow I’m at Cornell to start classes there.
A little levity from last week. Free single scoop ice cream cones were handed out for Ben and Jerry’s customer appreciation day.
Notice anything funny outside the office window?
A deer decided to bed down today outside the office of Professor Williams and Vogl. We’re not quite sure how long it was there for. It must have felt the row of small hedges gave it some protection from the elements (and the students). As for us professors, clearly aren’t perceived as a threat by anything — my students could have told you that.
As I was leaving the house this morning, and stepping outside into the sunny 2 degree weather, I grabbed a couple quick pictures of the aftermath of yesterday’s snows. This is the most snow we’ve had on the ground in quite a while. Again, nothing like to 10 feet + of snow currently burying northern New York. Still, it’s not an insignificant amount at all for Rochester. On the left side of the picture you can see the area where Dre made a snow angel last night.
Here’s a panoramic view of our little piece of Hampton Lane in Penfield. It doesn’t do the piles of snow at the end of our driveway any justice.
That’s it for now. Some more research blogs are coming. And still no word on Grad programs.
Valentine’s day has come, and almost gone, here in Rochester and was marked with the first true “blizzard” we’ve had in quite a while. While we’ve gotten off light compared to places like Oswego, over the last 20+ hours almost a foot of snow has fallen on the immediate area (more in some places). RIT canceled night classes, effectively closing the campus at 6.00pm. Here’s a shot of my walk out to the car at 4.00pm today:
As far as my car itself, I found it partially buried by the snow that had fallen since I arrived on campus around 8.50am:
For Dre and myself our outside day ended in much the same way as it began: shovelling the driveway. And it was literally the same amount of snow at 5.40 (yes, it took me more than an hour to make a normally half-an-hour commute) as there was a 7 this morning. One big difference however was Dre’s decision to make a celebratory snow angel at the end of shoveling this evening. I opted not to join her.
Before I got home, I did make a stop off for supplies at the local Wegmans (it still took me about an hour to get from RIT to Penfield). Thankfully, that gave me one last chance to take a few pictures of the Valentine’s display there. Wegmans, well, went a little over the top this year. More than a little. A lot. While from the outside things look normal:
Once you got inside, things got crazy. The following panorama of the Valentines display doesn’t quite do it enough justice. The entire center island was all flowers with two florists pulling together last minute bouquets. To one side was candies, to the other side chocolate cakes. Yesterday, they actually had one of the chefs (yes, our supermarket has floor chefs), in a tux, passing out chocolate covered fruit.
But in my opinion the cat’s pajama’s was this ice sculpture:
Yup, Wegman’s Ultimate Chocolate Cake (which while quite good is no where near “ultimate”) was complimented by an ice sculpture “vase.” If there was any question before, it’s been laid to rest, Wegman’s is no longer a store, it’s a shopping experience. Take that Whole Foods!
But Dre and I were not swayed by this crass consumerism. We opted for a quiet dinner (we went out for our night on the town dinner last weekend). And, provided we’re dug out by the weekend, we’re planning a date for Saturday night.