Spring Break, Part Deux

Today I baked and frosted a bunch (about 5 dozen) spring sugar cookies. Most of them are to give away, but many are for eating! I think they're super cute:

Pink tulips, yellow chicks, and blue bunnies

Fox Ridge State Park

We had a day off yesterday -- hooray for Spring Break! -- and decided to go somewhere new and do something different. So we made the short drive to Fox Ridge State Park, just south of our home, and explored some of the trails there and had a picnic lunch. It was a fabulous day! The weather was cloudy but warm, the trails were the most interesting and challenging that we've found in central Illinois (though Mike argues they were wimpy compared to Utah trails), and we enjoyed being together. The scenery was not great -- everything is still pretty brown and drab -- but we did see and document some hints of green that whisper, "Spring is here. . ."

We took the rugged route to the Eagles Nest.

This is not an assessment of the park or our little trip. The tree just reminded Mike of a thumbs-down.

Green!

Can you see the ghost trees in this dead forest? They sort of look like quaking aspen, though I don't think they actually are.

This is the first switch-back we've seen in Illinois, and it was so momentous we had to document it.

We made it up to the Eagles Nest! (Yes, I'm wearing my 10-year-old Idaho's Junior Miss t-shirt.)

This tree was interesting. There were some large rocks stuck in the center, splitting the tree into four parts. It made Michael think of a story told by Thomas S. Monson about The Peril of Hidden Wedges.

Here's the river. When we saw it, Mike said, "It's pretty in an ugly sort of way."

Seattle, briefly

Last week I was in Seattle for the ACRL National Conference. (ACRL is the Association of College and Research Libraries.) It was a fantastic trip and conference for many reasons:

1. I stayed with one of my best friends, Heather, who is a high school teacher in the Seattle area. She and her partner, Peter, were the most fantastic and thoughtful hosts! I had a great time catching up with them.
2. I got to spend time with one of my favorite librarians (and people) in the universe, Wendy.
3. I had a poster presentation that went really well. I took 200 handouts with me and came home with just 15, so I know that at least 185 people were interested in the research I'm doing with other U of I librarians.
4. ACRL is a great conference! Highlights included: a keynote address from Sherman Alexie, who was hilarious; thought-provoking presentations from other academic librarians; and introductions to cool tools (like mobile devices for roving reference).
5. Seattle has great food! I ate tapas at Andaluca, pho at Pho 900, and delicious artisan cheese at Beecher's.
6. Seattle has an awesome public library. I was just there for a minute, but had to stop by to see the interesting architecture, inside and out.

P.S. Mike and I saw a fantastic movie this week, which I'd highly recommend: The Visitor. Richard Jenkins got an Oscar nomination for his role. We also saw Duplicity last night (on a double date with some friends) and were very entertained.

P.P.S. What I'm reading: I finally finished Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace and I'm still not sure whether I really liked it (or whether I really got it). It's an interesting idea for a book -- set in the near-future in a hyper-commercial world where years are branded and everyone's addicted to something. But it's a difficult book, not least because of its length (over 1,000 pages). I also just read Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer, an exciting mystery that includes a search for an ancient book, a connection between Superman and Cain & Abel, librarians, Homeland Security, and more. Now I'm reading something totally different, Home by Marilynne Robinson. It's a companion to one of my favorite novels, Gilead, also by Robinson.

A change would do you good . . .

. . . as my friend Sheryl Crow likes to say. So I got a big haircut and it has, as a matter of fact, done me good. I feel like a new woman.

Before:

And after:

Here are my four 10-inch pontytails (mailed off to Locks of Love) -- and also Simone's foot.

I was curious about how much all that hair weighed (I felt tons lighter), so I put it on my little kitchen scale:

6 ounces!

This was my third donation to Locks of Love, which means that I've now grown and cut off nearly 3 feet of hair (donations have been 10-12 inches each). Weird, huh? That's a lot of hair.

Illini Basketball

Melissa and I were thrilled to go to our first University of Illinois men's basketball game this week. The game was Wednesday night against Penn State. We had awesome seats on the first row behind the pep band. (The above photo is a random image from the Internet - not our actual view of the basketball court.) We were expecting a really good game since both teams were nationally ranked. The Illini had been playing very well at home and were ranked second in the Big Ten Conference.

As luck would have it, the game turned out to be one of the Illini's worst ever! The final score was 38-33 (or close to it). Penn State won, and both teams had abysmal shooting percentages. During the last couple of minutes of the game, the refs made a few "bad" calls, and the crowd erupted into boos and curses. The word that comes to mind is pandemonium. But we still had fun!

Happy V-Day

I hope all of you reading this had a lovely V-day yesterday! Mike and I had a great V-week. On Wednesday evening we got to give a presentation to the young women at our church about healthy relationships and marriages. It was a lot of fun to prepare together -- recalling how we met, what we used to do together when we were dating and engaged, and then reliving our wedding day through the (literally) hundreds of photos we have. We had a good time with the girls, talking about what makes family relationships and friendships most rewarding. One of the girls decorated these cupcakes for us with our names on them:


(After I took the picture, Michael ate all three of these cupcakes in a matter of about 5 minutes.)

Yesterday we had a hot date and exchanged small V-day gifts. This was part of Michael's gift to me:

He's so thoughtful. A few weeks ago I said something silly about needing "all the chapstick in the world" in order to have a stick in every necessary place (in all my bags, pockets, drawers, etc.). So I got this sweet "I HEART U" Valentine.

For our hot date, we had a yummy dinner at Milo's, went out dancing, and then saw Coraline (in 3-D) with some friends. Very fun.

Work-related news: I'm working on a project right now to test the usability and usefulness of library video tutorials at University of Illinois, and it's keeping me really busy. I usually work about 20 hours/week (plus classes and homework), but last week I worked almost 30. The usability testing is going well so far, and I'm learning a lot about what students think about our online instruction materials. I'll be reporting the results of this study at ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) next month in Seattle.

Weather-related news: we had a few days this month of abnormally high temperatures (highs near 70), but now winter is back. Simone uses our desk lamp as a heat lamp to get through the winter months. :)

Trip to Cache Valley: January 13-18, 2009

Mike and I made a belated holiday visit to Cache Valley last week and had such a good time. In fact, we were so busy visiting with friends and family and doing fun things that we didn't take a single picture! I packed the camera and then left it in my suitcase for the whole week. Oh well -- fun memories are better than photos. :)

We got to see so many of our family members and friends. We stayed with my parents, who are empty-nesters now that my baby brother has moved out. Mom and Dad are so much fun! They took us cross-country skiing up in Immigration Canyon in Idaho. On the way there and back we saw a moose and a herd of deer! It was a gorgeous day: the sky was deep, deep blue and the sun was shining off of the dry, sparkly snow. The snow was perfect for skiing and the temperature was between 30 and 40 degrees. Michael is very good at skiing; I'm a bit awkward and clumsy, but I do enjoy it. After skiing and lunching we went and sat in the therapeutic minteral water at Riverdale Resort.

Rob, Sarah and Nick (my siblings and sibling-in-law) came over to Mom and Dad's house a couple of nights for dinner and games. We played Wii and also lots of card and board games. I love my little bros and Sarah.

My cousin Emily invited us over for dinner and it was so fun to see her, her husband, and their two cute little boys. At dinner with the Munks we also got to catch up with a college friend, Shanna, and her husband and kids. It was wonderful to see everybody! We had a great time playing games and visiting.

We spent some time with my grandparents and with Mike's grandparents, including his delightful 92-year-old grandma in Provo, UT. We got to see some aunts and uncles and my good friends Mary (for lunch) and Wendy (for pastries and knitting).

It's always hard for me to leave home when the vacation is over, and this time was no different. I try to "buck up," but every time we leave I cry and cry. Leaving my childhood home and coming back to my real life as an adult can be tough -- last night we returned to a musty-smelling house, a very lonely and needy kitten, and an empty refrigerator -- but it is nice to get back to a regular schedule, school, and work. We loved spending time with family and hope to see you all again soon!