Week 80 - Droolcicle

I'm delinquent again, I know, but these posts will be updated ASAP - I promise. Being a dad and a graduate student are not complicit with running a timely blog, but hopefully you still have interest in what has been happening the past 15 weeks. It's time to bring you out of the dark...

The first week missing was the last of February, and now that winter is over I can tell you it was the coldest winter in my lifetime and in my parents' lifetimes. Every time we thought it was finally going to thaw the cold wind would blow in from the North and plunge us back into another "arctic vortex". I literally prayed not to hear those words again on the news. It's even been so cold that Betsy came back inside after her teeth cleaning and her anesthetic-induced drool had formed a two-inch droolcicle on her lip.

Of course, since there was no time to delay any longer, Jasmine had to be let outside the barn with Daisy so that they would stop going crazy and keep Phil some company. Sheep are so well equipped for the outdoors and they handled that cold better than any of us. Thick wool and a break from the wind left them with all they needed to survive. Jasmine is growing quickly as a single birth and looks like she will easily rival her mother's size as an adult.

Just an example of my drive and our (lack of) weather predictability.

This was on the same drive, 10 minutes later.

Meanwhile, I've been indoors making good use of this!

With the grant submitted, I've taken it upon myself to slow down a bit at work and try to relax until Spring break. So much pressure has released and it's almost impossible to focus. First the exams, and then the grant, and then I needed to spend a bit of time rehashing my class notes from my departmental micro course. Since our department has so much diversity, this one class encompasses everything from baby intestinal development to yogurt production, biofuels and dairy cow microbial species. It has been quite a push to get caught up on all this class that I missed, but at least I finally got a break to do so.

As I let my mind wander and relax, we've been able to watch the Olympics and enjoy the U.S. Ice Dancing victory. We celebrated this especially because we had the opportunity to meet them back in 2011 for a wedding. Good kids with a great American work ethic and story. It was a triumph that wasn't any less sweet by being a landslide.

Over at Mom and Dad's, their lambs are just now getting playful. Jumping on Mom is their favorite pasttime.