furious…

someone stole my PB sandwich out of the fridge on my floor.  i didn’t have my name on it, but…  someone stole it.  it’s gone.

i’m livid.  absolutely livid.  someone else will be enjoying my dark roasted pb on homemade wheat and flax bread today…

Food.

Well, I’ve had a pretty great couple of weeks at the farmer’s market.  Here are two meals (last night and two Saturdays ago) that I’ve enjoyed…

Some good reading material for last night’s salad.  Gotta get my mind on the upcoming season…  Check out some more recent photos at http://tghurst0.shutterfly.com/.

October 9th

9AM.  INSCC 110.

My thesis defense.

Expletive?

Expletive.

This doesn’t mean I’m done.  It means I will be very close to being done.  Just editing, revisions, etc. left after I defend.  And my schedule will free up a lot.  Which will be sweet.  But I won’t be quite done.  Close.

Just one parting word:

expletive.

Edit (10:52AM):  Anyone who is looking for a great vacation, come out to Salt Lake City the weekend of October 10th.  If you come on the 9th you’ll get to see Mike Freizen coach the SDSU women’s soccer team against the Utah Lady Utes (my loyalties are so split on this one).  My dad might be in town, and if he is we could be gone fishin’.  I’ll probably head to southern Utah (I’m thinking Escalante/Grand Staircase) for a couple nights of camping.  All are welcome.  Please come console me.

Edit #2(11:11AM):  I may just keep adding to this post throughout the day (read: month) as I go through different emotions.  I do know that the one song I want to listen to when I’m done with my defense, after the sun goes down, is Redbird’s Ithaca.  Because it’s beautiful, and just sounds like it belongs at the end of something.  Even though the words have little to do with anything like what i’ll be going through.  That just came through my ‘Party Shuffle’ (yeah, party in cubicle 405-9).

Edit #3(12:46PM): As I am frantically preparing for my defense in four weeks, I came across this.  Really?  Wow.

reassuring.

One of my favorite emails I have received in a while.  To the College of Mines and Earth Sciences mailing list, which is housed in the William B. Browning Building.

“Hi All,  I just got a call that the north elevator should be working now.  Good Luck.  Sharon”

tired of it already

The politics, that is.  The bickering, the personal attacks, the blowing-up of issues that have no impact on a person’s ability to lead our country (Bristol Palin’s pregnancy?), etc.  I wish politicians had more dignity and more respect for their opponents.  But they don’t.  Not to explicitly side with one candidate or anything (you make the call if it’s more subtle than that), but just to lay it out there, this is a great response to something Palin and Giuliani talked about the other night.

the fruits of bored procrastination

Vote: which looks more like me?  if only I were this well dressed, right?

make yourself (proves for an interesting study to self images):  http://www.faceyourmanga.com/

best ever

I’m writing this with the confidence that all of my California friends and family are busy watching the olympics right now.

Best.  Race.  Ever.  Period.  Best of all time.  American record lead-off (that, in-fact, was .01 off the previous world record that was broken in the same heat).

Fastest relay split ever.  46.06.  I can’t even do that yards right now.

Fastest heat ever.  FIVE teams under the world record (which you should know was broken in prelims by the American B team.  Yes, our B team).  So imagine going a world record and not even getting a medal.

I cast my vote for this as the greatest race of all time.  In any sport.  In any event.  The greatest race, of all time.

But that could just be the adrenaline still pumping.  That was incredible.

dangerous book…

Yesterday I was bored (people are out of town.  I’m still on ‘sabbatical’ from school work) and laying around the house.  I picked up the copy of “The Dangerous Book for Boys” my pops gave me for my birthday last year.  Started reading.  One of the chapters is a detailed description of how to build a tree house.

I want to build a tree house.

We never had a tree house when I was growing up.  I don’t know if it was because of where we lived, or what we were doing, or why, really, but we never had a tree house.  My brother and I didn’t get in to trouble out in the woods, we didn’t build forts in the wilderness.  Well, there weren’t any forests around our house…  But you get the idea.  Anyways, I really want to build a tree house now.  Does anyone have a tree in which they would like a tree house?  It would be sweet…

Last night was the perfect summer evening.  I ended up going for a bike ride around 8, just around town, because I can.  And it was glorious.  People were out doing stuff, walking, laying in the grass in the park, watching the sun go down.  I loved it.  Summer is awesome.  I’m leaving right now to go hear a free concert on campus.  Some guy.  Acoustic.  I think I might take a nap under the trees.

on returning.

Well, I’m back in the States.  Back in Utah.  Back in the office.  But don’t worry–I’m only here taking advantage of the very free and very fast internet.  I’m going to lunch with the dudes from my lab and then I’m leaving, not to return until August.  But it’s surreal to be back.  Strange.  Nice, familiar, but strange.  I was walking to grab the bus to church yesterday morning, walking through campus, and it was weird.  I can’t believe how fast the last three and a half months have gone by.  It’s nice seeing familiar faces, nice hearing English and being able to communicate easily with anyone and everyone, nice seeing all of the ads for outdoor concerts and markets and festivals.  So much to do.

A quick recap of our last few days in France.  After leaving Mont Saint Michel, we drove to Vitre via Fougeres (really cool Castle we got locked in when the museum staff left for lunch.  Plate of mussels for our own lunch) and found a quiet farmhouse B&B.  No one was there except the daughter of the couple who own it.  We got a room, drove the 15 minutes into Vitre for cheese, baguette, fruit, and wine for dinner.  It was so pleasant we decided to just lounge the following day and spend an extra night in Vitre.  Leaving Vitre we headed towards Carnac.  We stopped along the way to see La Roche aux Fees, a bunch of very, very large rocks that formed kind of a room used for ritualistic purposes or something.  It’s about 4000 years old.  In Carnac we saw Les Alignements–a bunch of rocks standing on end in very orderly rows.  There were several large sites throughout the region.  Unfortunately we couldn’t walk through them.  Those were 4000-4500 years old.  Crazy.

Leaving Carnac, we drove on small roads to Guerande, the salt town, where we ate hamburgers (really, really good, and with a twist on American burgers), walked through a medieval walled city, and bought some pottery.  Moved on to a little town called Noyant, heading back towards Paris.  We found a cheap hotel, very seedy, but it did us just fine for the evening.  The next morning we stepped out of the hotel to the farmer’s market where we bought some cherries, along with some pastries from the bakery.  Drive back to Paris, return the car, and hit up our hotel.  Pizza and beer for dinner our last night together, and Saturday morning off to the airport.

As of right now, I’m not sure if my uncle has made it on a flight home yet.  After sitting for three hours in business class (he gets good upgrades–perks of being a former pilot) they cancelled his flight Saturday, and he decided to stay until Monday to avoid dealing with crowded flights yesterday.

Mom arrives Wednesday at some point.  California next Monday.  Looking forward to swimming in the ocean…

Mont Saint Michel

This morning we woke at our hotel in Bayeux. Breakfast, shower, we loaded the car, checked out, and headed out on foot for the Tapisserie d’Bayeux. The tapestry was made following William the Conqueror’s invasion of England in 1066 and measures over 70 meters long. I have to admit, I was doubtful. I wasn’t terribly interested in or impressed by the tapestries at the Cluny, though more than appreciative of the art as well as the historical documentation. Really, I had no idea what to expect. But this tapestry was definitely impressive. Fascinating, really. First of all, let me point out that it’s almost 1000 years old. That’s kind of a long time (human time scale, here). Second, 70 meters. All in one continuous piece (there are some seams, but I imagine those are close to original. Also, it’s all pieced together in one 70 meter-long display). Lastly, and this may be due to the commentary we had on an audio handset, the detail depicted was remarkable. So many nuances that, were I simply walking through, I probably would have missed.

After finishing the tapestry, we walked to a patisserie just up the street from our hotel. We stopped at this particular patisserie yesterday after the Normandy museum, and had delightful pastries. Well, this morning we went all out. A fresh baguette (still warm… divine), two eclairs, two tartes, two of the small ham and cheese baguettes, a pain raisin, and a giant piece (yes, only a piece… the whole loaf was monstrous) of some really, really good bread with raisins and other little nuggets of goodness. Some fruit and water from the fruit market next door and we were ready to head west.

A stop in Avranches to see the Jardin des Plantes. Nice. Sleep town, lots of daylight left, we move on for Mont Saint Michel. We arrive at the Brit Hotel (a French chain of hotels) about 15km from Mont Saint Michel, check in, and head out. In correspondences with my aunt and after speaking with the matron of the hotel, we decide to not necessarily “do” Mont Saint Michel today, but arrange bikes for tomorrow. Anyways, we arrive and the tide is low. It seems like an opportune time to walk around the island. We do. Through silty mud and a few wading spots, we complete our circumnavigation and head up the hill, taking a back way that only a few people seem to know about. The rest of the island was swarmed with people, whom we soon joined, but it wasn’t hard to get away and find some quiet stairways to climb, hidden parapets from which we could soak in the view. An ice cream cone, some more traipsing, and we head down. After we get through the tour bus parking lot, I mention that it’s entirely too early for us to be done with the day, being a quarter to six, and I would hate to waste any time. We decide to do the tour of the church and turn around, arriving at the ticket desk just a few minutes before six. Purchase our tickets, walk in, and they lock the gate behind us.

We have the place to ourselves.

We start the tour, and one of the docents begins locking doors behind us as we make our way through. There’s a massive viewing platform, and we’re the only ones on it. The main cathedral is empty, save two others. Our docent ushers a group of about 10 out of the cloister, but allows us to linger a bit longer. The whole way through, she’s locking doors as we finish with a room. Sure, it was a bit rushed, but a private tour of Mont Saint Michel?

We exit, sit down for dinner at a Bar/Restaurant/Creperie which, unfortunately, was finished with crepes for the night. But we have our fish soup, open our half bottle of 2006 Chateauneuf du Pape, and revel in what we just experienced. A dessert of troix fromages (all local fromages d’Normandie), and a waning evening behind the island. See photo page…