Boston Marathon

The reason Alex and I included Boston in our east coast tour was not so much that we wanted to explore (we've both been there numerous times) but because our friend Heather was running the Boston Marathon. She did fantastic! Her time was 3:21:49 which is about 7:41 miles. That's more than a 10 minute improvement over her qualifying time. Alex and I (and Chad) were about a half mile from the finish line. We saw Lance Armstrong run by. His time was somewhere around 2:40 I think. Pretty good given the rumors that his longest training run was 14 miles. I had a pretty good view of the runners, but when Heather came by I was torn between cheering and picture taking. So, I only got one shot of her. After the race we walked around Boston with her, Brian, and her parents looking for beer and seeing the sights. She must not have been too tired... that's her in her trophy jacket that her mom insisted on buying for her.

Views from the Empire State Building

As many of you know, Alex and I just returned from a tour of the east coast (or at least a sampler tour). We started in Boston, went through New York City, and ended in Washington D.C. I had never been to the latter two cities and of course returned with many, many pictures. Contrary to my usual orderliness, I think I will post them somewhat randomly starting with some from New York City. New York was definitely an eye opening experience. I was so struck by the enormity of the city. So many people living amongst so many over-sized buildings and so little empty space. It's just plain huge. I think this is demonstrated best by some pictures I took from the top of the Empire State Building (we only had to wait in line for about 15 minutes!) and one I took at Times Square.

Up

Down

South
North
Times Square
(on a Wednesday afternoon)

Twins v. Tigers

Last Monday we went to a baseball game in Detroit at Comerica Park.


We took Jason (Alex's favorite co-worker) and Leah along with us. Jason is a dyed in the wool Tigers fan and Leah just likes baseball. She used to work at the Mariner's games as a food vendor. It was fun to root for the Twins among 30,000 Tigers fans. I like being different.


Prior to meeting Alex, I really had no interest in baseball. Do they even play baseball in Utah? Anyway, it has taken some time, and I'm still nowhere near as interested as Alex, but I definitely have come to enjoy attending games. Especially since it's an outdoor affair. Basketball, the only other professional sporting event I've ever attended, is really exciting but you don't get to breathe fresh air or watch the sun go down. Monday was a beautiful evening. Clear skies and a chilly breeze. With three jackets on plus one to cover my legs and insulated boots I was quite happy.


The Twins lost, much to our dismay, 10 to 9 (or something like that). But what an exciting game. The Tigers had been on a losing streak (I don't think they had won a single game yet), so the crowd was going crazy when they pulled ahead in the eighth inning. By the way, the Twins are in gray in the pictures, the Tigers in white. Also, Joe Mauer is the Twins catcher shown below--he's one of my favorites. I'm not alone in that sentiment. Joe is a homegrown Minnesotan and is pretty much every Twins fan's favorite (see here). It helps that he's 6'5" and cute.


So if you've never been to a baseball game, I highly recommend it, especially if the Twins are playing!

Hallelujah!

Yesterday I handed my dissertation proposal in to my committee. We're meeting next week to discuss it. Thank god I'm done with it. What will I do with myself now that I don't have that hanging over my head? Oh! I know. Maybe I'll actually start doing some research...

I thought, just for fun, I would post my proposal for people interested to know what my research is about. Plus, I think this program for embedding PDF's is kind of neat! And please don't feel obliged to read it : )

Read this doc on Scribd: Messinger Dissertation Proposal

Dead Leaves

I took these picture while out walking with the dogs today. I thought they were kind of neat. If you click on them and look at them in larger size you can see all sorts of little details on the leaf itself. In the second one you can make out little leaf fibers fraying at the edge. Just think, those leaves have been hanging there dead since October or November of last year. They've been through a lot.

Happy Easter!

We're celebrating by eating a gourmet crepe brunch and running 17 miles.

I hope your easter plans are just as enjoyable!

Snowshoeing

Did I spell that right? Well, in case I didn't, I'm talking about that thing you do where you strap big platforms to your feet and tromp through the snow.

A couple of weekends ago we experienced a rare event here in Ann Arbor--a wintery weekend day with beautiful blue skies and snow on the ground. To celebrate, a bunch of us EEB-ers took our snowhsoes out to Pinckney state park. Not all of us own snowhoes. One of the first-year students (L'il Brian) happens to have a collection of ancient snowshoes that normally hang on his wall. He took them down and loaned them out for this event. I was thankful to have my own modern snowhoes after seeing the old ones in action. All in all we had 8 people and 7 dogs! We finished the trip off with cheddar ale soup, beer bread, and cookies at Brian and Heather's house by the fire. What a great day.

I was hoping to get a lot of pictures, but it has been so long since I used my camera that I forgot to charge the batteries. So, I only got about 3 photos. Fortunately, Brian and Heather had their camera too. I'm only responsible for the first photo--the rest are theirs.