Obama announced his running mate this morning and held a kickoff rally at the Old State Capital building in downtown Springfield.

(Read on …)

Leslie was up in Toronto, I had just arrived home that evening from San Francisco.  I had trouble sleeping with the jet lag and an empty house.  But I did manage to nod off around 2am only to be roused by the shaking and the noise at 4:37.

This was not my first rumbler.  In 1993 I was similarly jolted out of bed by a more violent quake.  This one was only a dozen miles away did more bouncing than shaking.  The ‘93 quake condemned the main building of my high school and extended my spring break by a few days.  I was too shocked to take in the entire experience of this event.

The Illinois quake had extensive aftershocks, one in particular stands out because I was in the office.  My office is on the fifth floor of and old masonry building.  It started at 10:14 and lasted what seemed like minutes.

During these quakes I was careful to pay attention to everything I could, the noise, the movement of the ground beneath my feet and of the rattling of the buildings.

(Read on …)

This is a Gerbera Daisy and it was suffering from mold on the leaves. I did some research online to figure out if there was a spray or something I could put on it. Sure enough there was, but what I also found intriguing was the suggestion of figuring out why the leaves are getting moldy in the first place.

(Read on …)

Leslie’s been back at work since July 1, so have I for the most part. We have drastically different ideas about a full work day though. For her it’s the late afternoon colicystectomy. I don’t even know what that is, but apparently there’s a lot of fun for everyone but the patient. The patient loses part of their something-er-other. I checked with Google, it only returned 20 pages. Maybe Leslie made up the word to sound cool ’cause all she’s really doing are colorectal resections. I guess we all take hyperbolic liberties to make our work sound exciting from time to time. (Read on …)

With the thesis defense over, it was time to party. This day, having seen serious, professional Leslie as well as fun, hostess Leslie, capped off over a year of hard work.

We had the deck put in last year, but the landscaping is brand new. In this photo they aren’t even quite finished yet. The beds do a lot to incorporate the deck into the house. In addition to this we have purchased a nice umbrella to shade the patio furniture during the hot summer months. (Read on …)