Random Applause

What a lovely thing to receive a random applause now and then. I just got one. Let me tell you about it.

I bought some new software to help me with my work called Mac Notepad from Apimac. To register, I expected the usual rigamarole of entering my name and registration number. I was surprised when I clicked on the "Register" button: a screen loaded where I could enter my name and registration number (as usual) but it was accompanied by a drum roll! After I entered my name and number and clicked "Enter," I got a confirmation screen and a round of applause. It was awesome!

I'm so easily amused...

there is no spoon

Today is a day I don't want to forget. I've been broken.

For 2.5 years I've joked with my classmates about how in grad school "they" try to "break" you down before building you up. Foolishly, I thought that I was broken enough. I thought while I pretended to be broken I could keep a small part of what I'll call my identity. Also during 2.5 years I've been doing a lot of self-reflection. I've questioned my ability, my desire, and my goals. It has been a learning process. I've learned about my ability, my desire, my goals and myself.

The last four days I've discovered some things about myself that seem pretty profound. On Saturday I realized why I've been frustrated. I feel like I ask and ask and ask for help and I never get any help. On Saturday I realized that my definition of "support" or "help" means that someone takes an active role...they DO things that I can't do on my own or guide me and tell me what to do. It turns out that "support" in graduate school means that a person won't impede your progress. It is a subtle but important distinction.

I also realized that I've truly believed that in graduate school I could experience it as much as I could influence it. Only two days ago did I resign myself to the fact that I have to focus my energy only on my experience and not my influence.Again, it is a subtle but important distinction.

[I have to say now that I can't thank my friends enough. A handful of people are the type of people who help me in the way that I desire it most...they actively pursue ways to aid me. They DO things to connect with me and stimulate me and invite me to help them. These special people are really amazing and I couldn't (and I won't) do this without them.]

Today marked the pinnacle of my self-reflection, so far. For tears and for 2.5 hours I cried. I couldn't stop the tears or the feeling inside me. I realized a painful truth...and I am it. I am simultaneously the person who can make things happen and the person who prevents things from happening. What was really scary was during this process I felt myself breaking down. I no longer believed that I can influence things or that I should bother. Everything I do has to support my progress or it isn't worth my time or my energy. For another hour I cried, but my feelings were no longer of loss. Instead I came to realize what it means to be independent.

You see, I've been trying to play by the rules. I've been trying to guess what the rules of graduate school are...who to talk to, what to do, when to do it. But the only rule of grad school is that there are no rules. I have to make the rules as I go.

This afternoon I'm thinking about how I can remember this day. For now this is how I see it: the first 2.5 years of grad school I have felt a lot like Winston from the book 1984. Like Winston hiding his love affair (being in love is a crime in 1984) I was hiding my idealogical beliefs about my participation in grad school. And like Winston who is convinced by torture that love is bad I've now accepted my role as a graduate student. But my fate isn't as bad as you'd think because my story won't end in 1984. My story will end like the movie The Matrix. I've been awaken. I now know that there are no rules.

Lastly, I have to remember that I have to take ownership in everything I do. I cannot think that others control me or my progress.

Mike's Research "Problem"

Mike is a researcher and experimentalist through and through...and I love it. He researches the crap out of everything and experiments with everything from recipes to ski gear. Let me share an example with you:

Mike, as many of us know, likes fleece jackets. We call them "fuzzies." He wears them until they are threadbare. Recently, he's been faced with replacing his last technical fuzzy with a new one. So, he began with research. He surfed the internet to learn about the different manufacturers, the different materials, different prices. Then, once he thought he knew what he was looking for, he began the experiment. On the rare occasion we went shopping (which generally means us wandering about REI) he would try on some fuzzies while I tapped my foot and tried to smile and nod. Well, when I went to Sun Valley for a conference Mike had the freedom to try on as many fuzzies as he could. And he did. Mike went to REI without me and spent an hour trying on EVERY fuzzy in the store. The REI employees started to chuckle when they walked on their rounds and saw him modeling fuzzies. But finally, he found one. It met all the criteria he had synthesized during his literature review/research.

Halloween 2006 - Spooooooky Ghosts

We went old-school this year. We cut eyeholes in sheets, tossed them over our heads, and headed out for a beer and some spooooky "booing" on Pearl St. We weren't out late but we had fun "scaring" people. Mostly, people just smiled at us. I guess they knew that we were friendly ghosts.

Tea Bonanza

I'm not sure how many details I should write about our tea bonanza. I guess I'll start at the beginning. Mike and I have always liked tea. But when we first had loose-leaf tea at Lau Laan Xang in Madison we had to start brewing loose-leaf on our own. And, as you can imagine, we started reading about tea and "preaching" to our friends and family. We managed to convert Nichole and Matt to loose-leaf tea.

Things got exacerbated when Mike got an ulcer last year and has had to quit drinking coffee. It turns out that tea is easier on his tummy than coffee. So this fall Mike starting researching tea...every night (I'm not exagerating) he read about tea and looked for places to order tea from. Luckily (?) he found a place to order tea directly from China. And recently we placed an order for 11 teas (three varieties) and two teapots. The order arrived last week. We got 7 bricks of Puerh, 1 bamboo stick packed with Puerh, 2 bags of green tea, and an oolong. (I can't help but feel like singing "fiiiiiive golden rings.")

So I took a picture of Mike with the uber-ridiculous pile of tea (an investment by the way because Puerh appreciates with age) and thought I should share.

Visiting Bledsoe

On Saturday October 20 I got to spend the day with Bledsoe. In the morning Becky and I met him and his children, Aidan and Gianna, at the farmer's market. Then in the evening I got him to myself. Mark and I took a blizzardly drive to a wine bar on Madison's west side. We spent some hours sipping wine and catching up. It had been years and our lives have taken many turns since we'd lasted enjoyed each other's company. We agreed that we missed cooking with each other...never before or since the cooking days in Madison have we found those special people who enjoy cooking and sharing kitchens and ideas almost more than they enjoy the food. The specialty we shared with Bledsoe: decadant and lengthy breakfast parties.

Carving Pumpkins

Saturday was like four different days. Day 1) In the morning Becky and I went to the Farmer's Market with Bledsoe and his kids. When he headed out to a football game, Becky and I warmed up from the cold rain in Ancora with Madison's best coffee. Day 2) Then she took me to Epic's new campus... What an unbelieveable campus! The details put the place over the top. Each wing of the campus had its own theme, funky (and a little nerdy) artwork was sprinkled throughout, and the conference rooms were designed to the max. The "Lake" had blue wavey-looking carpet, the "Galaxy" had stained glass windows that looked like outer space, planets inlaid in the wooden conference table, and a bomber globe, and one of the "Antarctic" rooms had white sparkly tile floors and a stuffed bear for a footrest. The entrance had a two-story tree: the bottom was hollowed out for kids to play in and when you walk up the staircase that wound through the canapy you could see artistic sculptures of tree-life (squirrels and whatnot). I know this description does no justice to it all. Mainly, I just want to try to remember. Day 3) After oohing and ahhing at Epic, we returned to Becky's apartment to carve pumpkins. For dinner we went to Lau Laan Xang...the Willy street restaurant was closed but luckily we had the patience and smarts to look up the number and, luckily, found out that there was a second location just up the road. Day 4) When we exited the restaurant we found ourselves in a midwest, early season blizzard. We ventured back to the west side where I met Bledsoe for drinks and Becky met her boyfriend to welcome him home from his trip to Poland. Whew! What a day!

Meanwhile, back in Colorado Mike was carving pumpkins with Danielle and Lyle with powertools!!

Lunch with Old Friends and Beer at the Terrace

I spent Friday morning working at Becky's office in the TDS building. For lunch, Becky had arranged to meet some of my old coworkers/friends for buffet lunch at the Maharajah. So we met and ate with Dave, Mike, and Jim. All three of them have new babies at home so most of our conversation revolved around the topic of children. It is only a little weird to be outside the Epic crowd...and it reassured me that I made the right decision leaving five years ago.

After lunch I got to meet Kylan. Jess and Rob drove all the way from Milwaukee to see me. We spent the afternoon together. We went to the Terrace and had some beer. Well, Kylan didn't get any beer no matter how much he asked for it. I must say that I am entirely impressed with Jess and Rob. They are still themselves with the baby and the family-love is just so strong that it radiates from them all. When we got to the bottom of the pitcher we went for a stroll up State St. before heading to Becky's for dinner. We had an old favorite - Glass Nickel. Honestly, I'm glad Jess and Rob remembered because I had shamefully forgotten about Glass Nickel...even though it was a staple in my Madison diet.

Jots for Jill

Six degrees of separation: the cousin of a friend of ours has been diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia. Our friend and his wife are sponsoring a fundraiser through their greeting card company. Please read below and consider supporting Jill:

"We are offering a pack of three notepads (see attached ad or our
website: www.mandwcreations.com ) for $18 with all profits being
donated to the National Transplant Assistance Fund (NTAF) for Jill's
benefit. This fund will help with the costs of transplant
alternatives that are not fully covered by insurance. Any funds over
the purchase price of $18 will be donated to NTAF for Jill, so
consider "rounding up" your check for this great cause.

If you are interested in purchasing notepads for yourself, or as
gifts, please email us at: orders@mandwcreations.com or call us at:
630.584.5980. Feel free to forward this email to anyone who may be
interested.

Please also consider contacting Gift of Life (www.giftoflife.org) for testing kits as Jill
is still searching for a match."

My Clipless Pedals

I've finally done it. I've gone clipless. Going clipless in biking means that now my shoes have little pieces on them that connect to special pedals on my mountain bike. Just like ski bindings and boots secure me to my skis, the clips and pedals secure me to my bike.

After riding around for a week now it feels like they aren't even there...almost. Yesterday after work I went looking for an ATM somewhere along my commute home. I was slowly moving through a parking lot (about 10 miles per hour) and approaching the stopsign where slow-moving traffic was crossing in front of me. Looking left I saw a tentative SUV approaching the intersection. To the right a Jeep and a Subaru accelerating towards the intersection. As usual, I was trying to time my approach to get there after all of them had gone through. You see, if I come to a complete stop I have to unclip from at least one of the pedals to put a foot down lest I balance at a standstill (which some more skilled riders can do). But the tentative SUV came to an unwarranted stop and the traffic became a cluster@*&!.

In the past, it wouldn't have been a problem. I would have set a foot down and waved to bozo along. But I was clipped in and evidently I had forgotten that I had to intentionally remove my feet from the clips. So, I came to a standstill and seemingly in slow motion tipped over onto the street all the while my feet wiggling back and forth as I attempted to unclip. Luckily, my training as a volleyball player had already numbed my elbows and wrists from Julie-ground-impact-pain. the Subaru driver passed and asked if I was OK (only one of them expressed any concern) and truthfully I responded "just a bruised ego." So now I just have some bumps and bruises and a story to tell.

Nornbergs Visit...Again!

On Thursday morning we had breakfast at the Walnut Cafe with my family. On my bike, I raced my parents up 30th as they headed out of town. I regularly bike around town and I never thought to take a picture. But I'm glad my mom is a shutterbug and snapped some shots of me.


Shortly after getting home, I headed out again to meet Julie and Maggie Nornberg. They were using Mark's workshop at NCAR as an excuse to visit. So, lucky me, I got to spend Thursday with Julie and Maggie walking around town. We visited Alison's Cafe on Pearl Street and returned home in time to meet the boys for dinner at the Med. That night was a typical Thursday evening in Boulder and as we walked up the Boulder Creek Path we encountered many people in the Boulder Cruzer Club in costume wishing us "Happy Thursday".


On Friday afternoon Mark joined us and we went for a walk around the Betasso Preserve. Betasso isn't as strenuous as the walks we did the last time they visited two years ago (Mount Sanitas) but it was just as scenic. Plus, as far as I know, it was Maggie's first experience in the mountains!

Mom & Dad U, & Grandma in Town

My parents visited Alex in Nogales, AZ for a few days where he's helping protect our borders. Then they started a road trip home with some fun stops along the way. They went horseback riding in Phoenix with Aunt Harriet; with Grandma in tow they visited Mesa Verde National Park while en route to Boulder to see us.



Mostly, we spent our time hanging out. We had meals together (BJ's Brewhouse, the Hungry Toad). We sat around our apartment. Grandma and Mom let me splurge a little on some new clothes at the Outdoor Divas (thanks!!) AND we all went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to see Bodyworlds. Pictures were prohibited in the exhibit but I did manage to get one of a camel that had been plastinized that was outside the exhibit. In the background is a poster of one of the bodies I got to see: Man Playing Soccer. I highly recommend seeing BodyWorlds if you have the chance. It was fascinating and very educational.

All in all it was a really fun two days. I only wish it could have been longer!

Celebrating Five Lucky Years

We celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary this year. Unbelieveable! I can't believe that it has been so long what we were all in Grand Cayman. I really can't believe that Mike and I still get along so well! We couldn't be happier with one another.

In addition to a fancy meal out on the town at one of our favorite places to splurge in Colorado, the Sushi Den, we gave each other the traditional gift of wood. Of course, we put a fun skiing-worthy spin on wood. We bought each other telemark skis (and bindings and boots). After a few test runs on some demos I chose the Black Diamond Mystics and Mike got the G3 Barons. Okay, so only Mike's skis are technically wood-core skis. But I love my new skis and we agreed that these are pretty SWEET anniversary gifts. ;)

Our First Tyrolean Traverses

After a leisurely morning of sleeping in and getting bagels with the guys (McGuire, Justin, and Kevin the Frenchman) we headed into Boulder Canyon for a day of rock climbing.

A Tyrolean Traverse is basically like a zipline set up to cross a river or the like. The one we did was a set of ropes suspended between two rocks above the rushing rapids of the Boulder Creek. We clipped our harnesses to the ropes and pulled ourselves (and our food, water, and gear) across the river. In the pictures on the left, Mike is wearing red and I'm in green.


















We spent the day hanging out and taking turns climbing.

On the way home we experiences the strangest weather we've had in Boulder to date: it snowed. It wasn't the fact that it was snowing on June 24th that was so strange. It was the WAY it snowed. The snow was coming down as snowballs and splattering on windshields and the ground. By the time we made it down the canyon the streets in Boulder had flooded. After all, it had been warmer than 90 degrees F and the asphault was so hot that a lot of the snow was melted on contact. By the following day the only evidence of the 20 minute snowstorm was the debris deposited on the sides of the streets and walkways. Crazy!

Estes Park Wool Festival

My friend from CU, Jess, and I went to the Estes Park Wool Festival. It was AWESOME. Ranchers from all over the country gathered in Estes Park, Colorado for an annual weekend of fun and fiber. We walked around to every tent and visited all sorts of fiber-producing animals including sheep, goats, rabbits, llamas, and my favorite - alpacas. While the main vendor barn with all sorts of yarn was cool, it paled in comparison to our local Boulder yarn store (Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins). So, I purchased a few skeins of natural (not dyed ) alpaca wool yarn from the vendors in one of the animal tents. It is the softest yarn I've ever held! I almost bought a sheep to bring home (they're only $300!!) but decided that Mike probably wouldn't be too happy with a sheep as a new pet. I decided to wait.



Now I'm waiting to move to Montana to buy some fiber animals. How cool would it be to have my very own alpacas?!? Jess only encouraged these crazy ideas. Yeah right, in my spare time I'll sheer alpacas and spin yarn. ;)
I probably won't start raising sheep or goats or alpacas any time soon. I think I can stick to knitting and crocheting. Now that I have all this yarn waiting for me I had better get started! Luckily, Jess and I came home and put together a knitting group. Yay!

TiWWDEO - Artichoke & Morel Pasta

Artichoke & Morel Pasta
Approximate cost (including wine): $25 for two to four people.
Ingredients:
2 artichokes
2-4 ounces morel mushroom
garlic
salt
butter
cream
oregano

Recipe:
1. Wrap artichokes in foil and grill for about one hour on medium.
2. Start heating water for pasta.
3. Make Sauce:
- On Medium-Medium High heat: saute 2 cloves of garlic thinly sliced in 2 tablespoons of butter.
- Add fresh morels and saute for another minute or so.
- Add 1/2-1 cup (depending on how many serving you want to make) heavy cream and grilled artichoke hearts (snack on the leaves while cooking).
- Simmer sauce for a few minutes while cooking angle hair pasta.
- Finish the sauce with some fresh oregano.
4. Toss about half a pound of pasta with the sauce and serve with some grated hard sheep cheese.

Serves 2-4
(Make the meal complete with a mixed greens salad and a bottle of wine.)

This is Why We Don't Eat Out - Introduction

As most of our friends and family know, we eat well. (See ucsu.colorado.edu/~schneijc/eat.htm for more.) So I figured that I could include a Food section of the blog called "This is why we don't eat out". Look for posts for our menus and recipes including, among other things, clean out the 'fridge meals that top most restaurants we can afford.

Blog #1 - The Montana News

Hi folks,

I'm just starting to use this blog for my family and friends. I started it orinigally just as a trial thing but I'm feeling so inspired by other blog-a-holics (my friends) that I might actually start posting stuff. Also, CU's web managing is a little klugey and since we're leaving soon (see below) I figured I should start something that is a little more mobile than my webpage.

Yes. We are leaving Colorado soon. I'll spare you the drama that led to our decision for now but ultimately Mike is now an Assistant Professor on leave from the University of Montana. He'll finish a stint here in Boulder at NIST until next summer. Come Fall 2007 he'll be teaching and doing research at UM for nine months a year and doing research at UM and other places in the summer months. I have a full time instructor position waiting for me. As it stands, my position will be split between the math department, the physics departments, the education department, and the community college housed on UM's campus. So I'll teach wherever they need me and do research in my "spare" time.

What does it mean? It means that you only have one more year to visit us in the Colorado Rockies. :) Rocky Mountain National Park (45 minutes from Boulder), Summit county (2 hours), and Boulder all have wonderful things to offer for entertainment and will be around for a while but the hostesses with the mostests (me and Mike) will only be running tours for one more year. After that the Schneider touring company will relocate to Missoula where we'll be running local Missoula tours in addition to "big" trips to Glacier National Park (3.25 hours from Missoula), Yellowstone National Park (4.25 hours), and - among other ski resorts (www.wintermt.com) - Big Sky (<4 hours) . Who knows, if things get crazy we might even end up in Canada (4 hours).

That is the only real "news" in our personal lives that is worth blogging. I could brag about family stuff but that'll have to come later. For now, I have to get back to all that working I was just complaining about.

Hope to hear from you soon!