Welcome to Spring in Ithaca!

I think the pictures say it all. Its cold, blowing w/ gusts up to 40mph, and snowing heavily. Apparently this is all part of a single nor'easter storm that raked Texas with tornados and hail, touched twisters down in South Carolina, flooded much of the northeast (Central Park in NYC got 7.5 inches of rain yesterday!) causing a couple states to declare states of emergency. And it just started here early his morning... we're supposed to get about a foot of snow today. Tame compared to twisters at 5+ inches of rain, but its still not the type of spring weather I'd like to be seeing.









Otherwise, not much to report. There are only three (3!) weeks of classes left, and things are really starting to ramp up for the end here. That unfortunately means I probably won't have a lot of time for research in the next few weeks.

Its official. Now, at 1:00 am Easter morning, it's snowing and sticking. And thus, I experience my first "white easter".

Dreaming of a White Easter?

I suppose that's not how the song goes, but it certainly looks like a possibility here. Either way, it wouldn't have quite the charm of Christmas time, although I suppose it would make finding colored Easter eggs outside relatively easy. The weather has taken a swing back to winter here, with single digit windchills and snow flurries. And it was warm enough to wear shorts last week...

In other news (besides school and research stuff), I ran a half marathon the other day. It was my first organized run, and I probably wouldn't have done it except I knew a couple others doing it. I guess I'd rather just be out running myself, but it was a fun experience donning the silly number on the stomach, having the chip timer system, and doing the run with ~250 others. After a slow couple miles with my friends, I took off for the remaining 11.5 miles and ended up finishing #64 at 1:41. I'm pretty sure I could knock that down to 1:30 with a couple weeks training and a good start at my pace. All told though, I still averaged under 8 minute miles, which I'm happy with. Maybe someday I'll work up to a full marathon.

The other big piece of news is more academic, but still worth mentioning. I found out a couple weeks ago that I received a NSF fellowship for the next three years!!! (For those not familiar, this means the National Science Foundation pays my tuition plus a healthy stipend just to do my graduate research... which I would've had to do anyway!) I put a lot of effort into the application, and was blessed with an honor that stays with me the rest of my professional life.

Other than that, life as I know it (I.E. research, classes, eat, sleep) continues to go on in its endless cycle. No big plans for Easter...