Archive for the ‘Weather’ Category

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Montana does have summer

Friday 3 July 2009

In April it snowed (10 inches over 2 days in  the last week); in May, it snowed; the first part of June had flurries.  But then, true to the stories from my mom’s childhood, June 14th rolled around and the yellow roses bloomed and POW, it was summer.  It has been in the 80s for the past few days, even hitting 90/91.  Okay, right now it is 78.   At night it drops down to a nice and comfy temperature so Grant and I don’t swelter.  SO NICE!!  We don’t need AC, we just need ceiling fans.  My room/office/Percy’s new play-room has no such fan, and a window screen that doesn’t even fit the window.  No air flow in here. Ew.

Anyways, as for going’s on, work has been work.  I’ve digitized a ton of areas in Southern Montana, Grant has started running with our Helena Running Club and doing a few trail races.  I’ve attempted to start jogging, and am getting into it.  Trails FTW, sidewalk running = B.O.R.I.N.G.

Last weekend we went to the Helena Airshow, also called the Gateway to Freedom Airshow.  I’ll put up pictures on Flickr at some point.  The Air Force Thunderbirds were there as were the Army Golden Knights (parachuters).  It was AWESOME. Food cost way too much, but it was a good time.  I’d never been to an airshow before, so this was just the best thing ever for me.  Grant was not nearly as happy as I was.  The weather was a stunning 78 or so with a steady wind so you didn’t sweat buckets.

Two weekends ago Grant ran the Wulfman Trail Run outside of Butte along the continental divide.  It was raining steadily and about 53 F.  I found out a friend of mine is pregnant (YAY!!) and had a long chat with my mom.  There was a cell phone tower across the road from where I was standing, so there’s no wonder I had reception.  The finish line (where I had to wait) was right off of I-90, just east of Butte before the Hodgeman Pass.  So the temperature shift from 53 to 83 during the day has been a welcome reprieve.

I’ve even taken to occasionally wearing skirts.  Oh yes, that’s right.  Some days I just go for girly.  Shocking.  I’m also getting my chaco tan back.  I got the ones with the thin double-straps so I don’t QUITE have the Zorro Tan from my last year in Boston.

Percy, the little spastic ball of fur, is growing up.  She’s a full sized cat now, but is just as cute as ever.  She no longer fits comfortably in my lap.  She has also stopped digging her claws into people’s legs to just look at them.  She does it to chairs though.  The past few nights she has been BLISSFULLY quiet and we’ve been able to sleep, but for the past few months she has been a right nightmare and Grant and I have had to contemplate various things to do with her overnight.  As long as she is good (i.e. we play with the laser pointer, chase her around and make sure she has food and water) we’re alright. . hopefully.  We just need to put in some evening effort to keep her wired up so she’ll calm down by 10 pm.

People are coming to visit us too!!!  These will be our first non-family guests!!  My cousins came for a visit in March, which ended in finding out our Grandfather had died (they drove over to Missoula to see people and him and on their way to the nursing home got the call he had just passed away that morning).  But on a happier note, Grant’s friends will be here . . NEXT WEEKEND and then they are off to Glacier and other sites to explore and hang out with us in short doses.  Then my friends will be here from Baltimore with their mom.  WOOHOO!!  So yeah, we are super excited about this.

My Aunt and Uncle will actually come over tomorrow for a late morning-early afternoon visit (they’re in Missoula seeing my grandmother).  It’s a good thing we cleaned today!!  Our apartment was looking like a pig sty and in the course of several hours it looks like a clean-ish place.  We’ve washed A LOT of dishes, and broken down a TON of cardboard.   We still have more to do, but it looks 10x’s better than it did.
Now for that mountain of laundry we have to do. . .

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Valentines Day

Saturday 14 February 2009

Last year Grant and I exchanged PlayDoh and he gave me a bear.  This year he went to the bakery next to where we had lunch and bought cookies while I waited in the car to see what he’d get. . . minimum surprise.

Yesterday was our Merlin Day #eleventybillion, and we went to Macaroni Grill.  It was way better than eating at Mediterranian Grill today for lunch. Land-locked state that loves Buffalo and BBQ is not a place to get Turkish food.  Sorry Montana, you FAIL!!

The rest of today will be spent geekifying and then I am off to the contra dance.  I love me some contra dancing and I haven’t been in SOOOOO long!!!  It’s only here once a month so I need to go when it’s available.  Apparently Bozeman is a bit bigger on the contra dance scene.

Hope everyone else’s day is going well, whether it’s Valentine’s Day or Singles Awareness Day.

Also, it is snowing.  I LOVE the snow.  This morning it was all light and fluffy.  I cleared off my car by blowing on the snow.  AWESOME.

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Autumn FINALLY

Sunday 19 October 2008

It feels so crisp and cool outdoors.  I LOVE IT.  Die you evil mosquitoes, DIE!!!!! *ahem*  I also like getting to curl up with Grant at night.  Part of the reason is that I’m apparently a blanket hog.  I get cold, okay!!  Seriously, I managed to get the sheet up around my neck last night, all of it.  We still had two other blankets, but I was suddenly in a very small area of the bed and Grant was diagonal and curled up next to me.  WHOOPS!!

Silly getting cold.

I can see why people have left WoW.  After trying AoC I finally see just how annoying WoW is.  Those quests and respawnings, etc.  EW!!  But with the constant booting from the wireless network via Windows I’ve had to settle for WoW on the Mac side.  It’s not bad, but I’m finding a lot less help for quests than I would like to see.

Anyways, in the real world: In THREE days, the Board of Examiners meets and they will decide if I passed my MSc or not.  I hope so.  I’ve decided not to fly back to England for graduation though.  It’s too expensive and I just can’t afford the time or the costs.  Pity, but there it is.  I’m ready to get a job and move on with the world.  I just need to get that dang resume all polished up and stuff.

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Honey, I’m home!

Monday 15 September 2008

We’re back in the USA in VA.  It’s lovely to be back.  I’ve mildly missed it here, except for the weather.  Although today is very low humidity compared to the past 2 1/2 days.  Friday was awful, Saturday felt atrocious and yesterday was painful.  It gets above 25 C and I get miserable.

Unlike Grant, I am still writing my dissertation, and I have 2 days to finish it (literally).  I need to send it off something like Wednesday evening.  AYYIIEEEE!!!

It’s crazy what we go through to write papers, and this is no exception. Time to get back to work.

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Too much

Sunday 11 May 2008

There is way too much homework and work going on for me to sit here and write about something other than bats.

This week I am being dragged off to Arneside with my coursemates for 3 days (we don’t get back until 9-pm ish on Wednesday and we leave tomorrow at 9 am) and then daily field trips that are “around Newcastle.”   We do go back to Houghall College outside of Durham, so that should be alright.  We know what to expect there and we know where the toilets are!

The spring weather has hit full blast.  Everyone is out and about in very short outfits.  And some people are sporting some serious sunburns.  I wonder why they don’t use sunblock.  Maybe because it’s frickin £8 (that’s the cheap stuff, £13 is where the “good stuff” is apparently) a bottle!!!  What is with this country?!? Our $8 bottles of sunscreen are rather large, these, are not.  If it were a Costco sized bottle for $13, yeah sure, that makes sense, but these are 300 mL if not less.

Mutter mutter gripe grumble.   Yup that’s me.  And just so you know, I splurged and got the “cheap” sunscreen in the hopes that I will not turn lobster red any time soon.  I burn quickly, although someone seems to have gotten sunburn on the back of his legs right above his knees and I hardly look like I got any sun at all (except for that sunburned part. . .oops, that got red).

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Spring!!!

Tuesday 6 May 2008

Today is Grant’s birthday, so go on his blog and wish him a Happy Birthday.  And tell him not to feel bad about turning “old.”

Spring is officially in the air and the tank tops and shorts are out en masse.

Grant and I did the crazy and wild thing today of . . *gasp* going to the library to return some book.  Aren’t we just so out there!!  While enjoying some sun on a bench near the overpass, I noticed Grant and become home to a ladybug.  She/he was all brown with white spots.  I’m fairly convinced after watching it for several minutes it had some OCD problems.  It was all about the cleaning of feet and face.  How clean can you get?!?

In Leazes Park I noticed a guy taking pictures of. . get this. . GOSLINGS!! Awww da behbeh geese!!!  They are all yellow and poofy.  Mum and Dad were right there next to them and you better not get close. . they’ll hiss at you.  One gosling explored about 3 feet away from where everyone else was and suddenly freaked out and ran back to the safety of the group and plunked down next to sibling as if to say, “See, I’m safe!!!”  It ran with its little wings stretched out and beak open like AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

Soon we leave for Grant’s dinner and then we’re watching Priscilla Queen of the Desert! Ahmed has never seen it, and I think it’s hilarious.  General Zod as a . . . well, I won’t ruin it for you.  Hugo Weaving, General Zod (see Superman 2) and Guy Pearce. . . oh yeah!!!!  Go see it.  NOW!

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Springtime?

Friday 28 March 2008

The mid-atlantic is showing promises of a gross summer that I am glad to miss.  We’ve had two days in the mid-70s, with 1 day in the 50s (yesterday).  I love this weather, it’s so comforting and relaxing.  I just hate what it means the weather will turn into in another 2 months.

Homework sucks though, nothing has changed there.

Tomorrow is my cousin’s wedding.   Tonight I think I am missing contra dancing.  I am also missing hanging out with my cousins due to homework.  I’ve wasted away enough days that now it’s time to just work work work.  I don’t want to go home to Baltimore to pack up my stuff and get ready to head back to England. I want to do distance-learning where I don’t actually have to head back there.  UGH! Then again, avoiding mosquitoes for a few more months/weeks will make me happy.

Back to work I go.  Tree essay, case study, GIS practical and Conservation Biology essays. . .  Life is not fun.

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Never healthy

Friday 22 February 2008

I swear I get sick every 2 weeks here.  It’s making me NUTS.  I have soooooo much to do and I just can’t stay healthy.  I’ve been sick ever since I got off the plane.  I just want to curl up in bed and make it all go away.

At least the weather today is quite nice.  I really enjoy windy and sunny weather when it isn’t biting cold.  Okay, the wind is a bit much at 50 km/hr.

I got my papers back for my one course and I think I’m putting in a formal complaint about the lack of feedback.  This is just too inconsiderate of them.  And  I hope other people will join me on it.

I also need to sit down and actually do this presentation on beech trees and the limestone pavement case study.

Last night I watched Calendar Girls with Grant.  There was a bit of Limestone Pavement in it!!!!!  Sorry, I found it amusing. I also love Helen Mirren.  She cracks me up.

Right, off to work on this homework type stuff.

And to blow my nose. EW!

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I’m hopeless

Tuesday 19 February 2008

This is the second time I’ve cut myself while slicing a bagel.  The knife just did not wait to go straight down, it wanted to go slant-wise.  I nicked a nice chunk of my left ring finger right by the nail.  Blood everywhere.  AND IT STILL HURTS!!!  Hours later.  *sniff* That means it’s a shallow cut right?  And also that it’s right at the top of my finger therefore I keep typing on it. . .

On a HAPPY NOTE I made friends with a kitty cat for about 30 seconds. This really stunning black cat was in a yard doing it’s cat thing of using a tree as a scratching post and ignoring everything else. It didn’t scamper off when I made a noise at it, so I figured maybe I would get to pet it. . . teehee.  After marking its territory it hopped through the fence and batted at my glove and let me pet it.  Very nice cat.  Very friendly.  I WANNA KITTY CAT!!!  I know I know. .  there is one at home, but she’s crazy.

Weather:

It is cold here.  Winter has settled back in with layers of frost sticking to the grass until noon or so.  It looks very pretty and I enjoy seeing it.  The sun is warming and I love it.  The weather really isn’t SO bad, but it’s the grey icky weather is going to hit in the next few days.  We’ve had about a week of glorious sunlight (BLUE skies, very very few wispy clouds and NO RAIN).  Don’t  you dare even think that England is this awful dreary place of fog and rain.  That’s called the west coast of England.  I don’t live there, I live on the east side of the country where we get lovely weather.  :-P

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It just keeps howling!

Friday 25 January 2008

I mean the wind.  It’s been blowing like CRAZY since about 10 pm last night.  It’s INSANE!!  I’m afraid to go outside because I might have a Mary Poppins moment and get blown into the air.

Today is clean up day, at least it’s what I hope it will be. . .  I have to get this room into some sort of shape that isn’t quite so awful looking.  Yes you can still see the floor, but some areas of the floor haven’t been unearthed for quite a while. OOPS!

I hope I can get this stuff done and also my LAST assignment for Quantitative Techniques.

I’m a dork, and I just want to sit around and play Baldur’s Gate this weekend :-P   I’m determined to get somewhere in the stupid game.   But of course, the 30% of my grade takes precedence over my silly game.  I’ll be in the computer lab working away at this hopefully. If I can get most of it done and with bullet points before dinner I’ll be VERY happy.