Get Your Preak On

Get your Black-Eyed Susan right here.
CDW and Melissa.
CDW, JAS, Melissa, Chris, ??
Kate and JAS.
CDW and JAS.
CDW kicking off the BES action.
Reporter interviewing the Chrises about their fashion decisions for the day. You can't see it in this photo, but Chris has on very buffy pants. They are green with little crabs on them. He also has on a bow tie.

Yesterday was the 135th running of the Preakness Stakes, and we were there. For all of you non-horse people (really I'm included in that group - I only know this because now I am a Baltimorean), the Preakness is the second race in the Triple Crown series. The Kentucky Derby is race 1, Preakness, then the Belmont Stakes up in New York. A Triple Crown Winner is a horse that wins all three races. The last one was Affirmed in 1978. Interesting to also note is that the Triple Crown Winner in 1935 was a horse called Omaha. This year there will not be a Triple Crown Winner. There was a lot of hype about the Derby winner, Super Saver, but yesterday Lookin at Lucky won the Preakness. Too bad for the Belmont Stakes, right? At least at the Preakness we have the hope of the possibility of a Triple Crown.

For the Preakness Baltimore does it's best to be hoity-toity for the day, but we're still a pretty gritty city, so this looks nothing like Foxfield or the Derby. The official drink of the Preakness is the Black-Eyed Susan. Ingredients are something like Whiskey, Vodka, sours mix . . . and I don't know what.

Jody is going to graduate

We went to an O's Yankees game last week. The Yankees fans outnumbered us. Bummer. The tickets were pretty expensive. Double bummer. We lost. Triple bummer. Score one for Grandpa Fred the Yankees fan.
Abbi giving us a smile. You can kind of make-out her "snaggletoof."

I have been quite busy in recent weeks. I finished up my MPH project, and then defended the final product. This means that I will graduate in May - woo hoo! Now time to find a job.

February Update

We are staying really busy these days. Christopher's job always keeps him hopping - he's finally getting a little bit of reprieve after the excitement of the snow and lots of extra hours of shoveling and plowing at his sites.

I successfully defended my MPH project proposal last week, and am in the process of finishing the IRB application. The IRB (Institutional Research Board) at UMD is tasked with making sure that research of any kind done by anyone affiliated with UMD is done ethically and responsibly.

They take their responsibility very seriously (as they should) - and that means that the application process is pretty intense. My project deals mostly with data analysis and mapping, so I shouldn't have any trouble getting approval from the IRB. That is what I am hoping anyway.

Yesterday Jackson had a bit of a stomach ache. He consoled himself by laying on our bed, which had been stripped so that I could wash the sheets. Enjoy this pic of our big baby.

Snowpocalypse!

Fire hydrant and snow drift.
Abbi sporting her winter coat.
Abbi looking cute in the kitchen.
Honda. We can only see it because CDW cleared it off after the first storm.
This is how they are hauling away the big drifts in Baltimore. The city got a special permit to dump the snow into the harbor.
Lee Street, where my car was parked. It still doesn't look much better.
Honda - back and side view.

It has been an exciting few weeks here on the east coast. I was so worried that I would miss big snow while I was in India - turns out there was no reason for me to worry. This February saw the largest snow amounts ever here in Charm City - and while the 2003 President's Day storm remains the largest single storm on record, the Snowpocalypse storms (February 5 & 9, 2010) of 2010 set lots of records of their own.

During the storm we spent lots of time hunkered down here at the house, building fires and drinking nutty Irishmen, and watching Madmen (we only have 3 episodes of season 3 left!). We drove to the gym on Wednesday - oops, we didn't know that Baltimore was in a Phase 3 snow emergency which means that you aren't allowed to drive. We had a great workout though!

Tonite we dug out my car. Discovery - dead battery. Our neighbor had jumper cables handy, so once we had the Honda charged up and dug out we had to get it up Lee Street. This was a significant challenge as Lee Street hasn't seen a plough . . . in many days. Tomorrow is back to real life with a full work week, my project defense (which was delayed on account of the snow), papers to grade . . . blah blah blah.

I hope you enjoy the few picts we managed to take. We didn't get much footage of the actual blizzard because it was hard to balance on the ice with three dogs, see in a blizzard, and take a good photo . . .

More India Picts - Kathikali, St. Cochi, Jew Town, Houseboat and the Night of the Flying Roaches

People like to burn things in India. It seems like it might not be good to burn things like this though.
Roadside monkeys. I like animals, but monkeys freak me out. They transmit rabies. And they are mean.

Surprised monkey!

This was on the way to the ladies room at the beautiful restaurant where we had lunch on our way to Munnar.
Again, at the restaurant.
Waterfall during the dry season.
Looks like somebody forgot about us . . . standin' on the corner waitin' for a bus . . .
Beautiful Catholic Church where our houseboat docked for the night. We should have prayed here.
These boys "greeted" us as we docked. I didn't have any postcards left for them. They look like tough customers. They probably would have liked candy instead.
Lunch on the boat. Mmm.
Relaxing.
Passing houseboat. Our houseboat turned out not to be this nice. Everything seemed okay when we boarded, but nightfall revealed lizards EVERYWHERE and very large flying cockroaches. No-one got much sleep.

Don't let this deter you. I'm sure that if you go to Kerala and rent a boat there will not be roaches (expect a few token lizards). BTW - Taking a cruise on one of these boats in Kerala is listed by Lonely Planet as one of the top 10 things to do before you die.
Window in Jew Town, St. Cochin. There used to be a very large Jewish population here; now there is only one Jewish family left.
Chinese fishing nets in St. Cochin.
Kathikali traditional performance.
This guy did crazy stuff with his eyes.
Our fab hotel in St. Cochin.

Munnar = Most Beautiful Place on Earth

At the Ayurvedic Clinic. They grow their own herbs.
Delish snack at the Ayurvedic Clinic.
Old lady and tiny carrots. Is this where baby carrots come from?
I ate this "rost corn." I knew it was a risk. I don't think this is what made me sick though.
Tea plantation at Munnar. Beautiful.

That's Dr. Howard, our professor. She and I might have trespassed to get these pictures. Maybe we did, maybe we didn't.


Our wicked awesome hotel in Munnar. Just in time to salvage the trip after our night of the flying cockroaches on the houseboat.
Jasmine flowers.
My new friend in Munnar.
They draw these on the sidewalk outside of their homes every evening.
Temple in Munnar. I love the temples! I wish Catholicism was so colorful.


Flowers for your car. To ward off the evil spirits.

I am back to real life; and it happened in a hurry. There was no buffer or time to bask in the glow of my trip when I stepped off the plane. I had laundry to do (had to get rid of the ant spray smell), dogs and cats to pet (Christopher kept the whole pack in tip-top condition), friends to see, an internship to start and school work to do. India was good while it lasted . . . sigh.

Sadly what all of this means is that Munnar and the final days of our trip are getting jipped on the blog. I would love to go on and on all of it but instead I've settled for posting my fave picts and videos. Enjoy!

Temple video. I love the sounds.