Extremes

Interesting map from NOAA/HPC showing precipitation differences from the long term mean for 2011 (okay so 2011 isn't over yet but I don't think we're going to see this map change much).

I spent Jan - July 2011 in College Station, Texas where it was so incredibly dry this year (and hot too) - over 20 inches LESS rain than average.

In July I moved to Albany, New York where there has been over 20 inches MORE rain than average.

Couldn't have lived in two more different places!!!

Workout Woes

After using the university gym, which is free for me, and finding it far from adequate (it cant be much bigger than my apartment), both Matt and I joined planet fitness. It has been pretty great so far. I go after work and run and lift weights. The dark and cold in the evening had pretty much prevented outdoor running in the evening (weekends have been mild up to now so I've done a few runs then) so treadmill it is.

I do still use the pool at the university though even though its not the best it certainly is not the worst pool I've swam in, and I've been to a few!! I suppose I've been spoiled by spending 3 1/2 years at Texas A&M which has a world class pool :-)

I've been keeping up with running/swimming/lifting weights 5 times a week and Tuesday is usually swim day. The trouble is, I'm really not feeling it today... sleepy, achey and generally tired. "Well, what's your problem, just don't go" I hear you say. My problem is I feel horribly guilty when I don't workout on a day that I plan too. Does anyone else get this? Maybe I should let my body have a rest and ignore the guilt, maybe I should just power through as sometimes working out actually makes me feel better if I'm not 100 %.

It's still early in the day and hopefully the Tazo passion tea that I'm drinking now will help perk me up and I'll want to swim later. Either that or I'll just have to learn to be okay with having a break... am I really going to put on weight and get out of shape for missing one day?!

The Melting Pot

For the first time ever we went to the Melting Pot for dinner on Friday, perhaps I'm behind the times but hey, they had a special deal. Apart from having a bruise on my knee from repeatedly whacking my knee on the burners (only one knee though, weird) it was a really great dinner. So much food! For those that maybe don't know, the Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant and even the main entree is served fondue style - raw seasoned meat is served with a pot of flavoured broth that you cook it in.

The best parts were the cheese fondue and the chocolate (cookies and cream) fondue - if only I hadn't eaten so much before hand I could have eaten that whole pot by myself. Will be going back for cheese and chocolate!!

Thanksgiving

There was no turkey. I'll put that out there right now! Seeing as I don't eat land meat cooking a whole turkey for one would have been a little ridiculous. We still had sooo much food though. The day started with a nice lie in and a trip to the gym (I'm still sore from bench presses). Then the cooking fest began.

trying to get into the northeast thanksgiving spirit we started with steamed clams in a white wine sauce with fresh french bread. This was my first time for clams that weren't in a sauce with linguine and they turned out really good but extremely filling.

The main course was where things got a little different. I had planned on making duck for Matt and tuna steak for me, but the local butcher didn't have any duck. I searched the Meat House (yes I went to somewhere called the Meat House) and found kangaroo steak. Marsupial it would be! We each had our steak with a pomegranate apple sauce, green and white asparagus, rainbow chard and mashed sweet potatoes with goats cheese. The tuna and sauce was delicious and the kangaroo got good reviews too. Why not try it if you can find it?!

It might not look like a lot of food, but we were stuffed and still had lots left over - in fact there are still mashed sweet potatoes in the fridge. We didn't even make the desert we had planned. That will be tonight hopefully.

On Saturday we braved the 60F and sunny weather to get a Christmas tree. Yes, I know it isn't (quite) December yet but firstly, everyone seems to get one the weekend after Thanksgiving and secondly, what with going to England at Christmas we wanted plenty of time to enjoy our tree! After considerable debate about size and type of tree we settled on a 6ft Fraser fir, which fit perfectly into my little car.

All the tree toppers we found just didn't cut it so we ended up with a peacock on top of our tree! The cat is enjoying the tree perhaps more than us, it is just so delicious and all that shiny tinsel and those baubles are perfect play size.

Now just to finish the Christmas shopping.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I made my favourite muffins this weekend in honour of thanksgiving on Thursday - although they certainly won't last till then! These are the same ones I made for my defense for those of you lucky (?) enough to get one. I'm not a big fan of canned pumpkin but these are just so delicious.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (200 grams) light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup (180 ml) solid packed, canned pumpkin puree

1 cup (175 grams) semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C).

2) Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
3) In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, ground spices, and salt.

4) In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.

5) Alternately add the flour mixture and pumpkin puree, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.

6) Fold in the chocolate chips.

7) Fill the muffin cups evenly with the batter.

8) Bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one muffin comes out clean.

9) Try not to eat them all right out of the oven!!

 

Hondas and Hawks

First piece of news from a couple of weekends ago... I bought a car!! Hurrah, I've finally entered the 21st century. With the cold weather and the dark evenings, it was getting quite unpleasant to ride my bike, although I do feel a little guilty that I'm driving instead of biking. Anyway, I got a 2010 Honda fit. It is only 2 years old with 12400 miles so lets call it nearly new. It has been great so far, despite the ridiculous drama getting cashiers checks from the bank to pay the down payment!

No shoes!

So, this weekend we went up to Saratoga Springs which is about 30 miles north of Albany. For the first time Matt didn't have to drive!! There a is great main street with lots of local shops (and some not so local - hello Eddie Bauer shop with 25 % off whole store) so some Christmas shopping was done. A nice beer and appetizers at Irish Times was followed by a stroll through the park.

This is where things got interesting. Matt spots a huge bird swooping down across the park and flying to a tree with something in its feet. At this point, all the squirrels were frantically squealing but no one else seemed to be paying attention. Being the amateur ornithologist Matt is, we tip toed over to the tree to get a closer look. It was a red tailed hawk having a delicious evening snack of a chipmunk. It was completely oblivious to us right below it. Okay so it was kind of gross watching it rip up the chipmunk but we watched for a while. It even dropped a little bit which we took home for the cat to play with (yuck)!!


Not the best picture as it was getting dark, but this guy (or girl) was big!

 

Chipmunk tail for the cat :-)

Bennington, VT

This past Sunday we decided to get out of the house and go somewhere new. Bennington, Vermont is less than an hour northeast of here so we figured, why not! It was a nice drive, even without most of the leaves on the trees! And for the first time we drove across the Hudson in Albany.

 Stop one was downtown where we got maple walnut and rum truffles from the little chocolate shop and followed it up with lunch at the local brewery. The beer was delicious and so was the food. I had a veggie burger, which may sound boring, but it had tabbouleh and hummus on it which just tasted so good! Matt said his sauerkraut with the brats he got was the best he had ever had, so not too shabby.

It was pretty quiet downtown and a lot of things were shut, party because it's not tourist season anymore and because it was Sunday so we went over to the Bennington monument. The giant obelisk seems so out of place in this little town surrounded by the green mountains! It was erected to commemorate the battle of Bennington in 1777 where they beat the British. The best part was it covered in lady birds!

We ventured East out of town and stopped where the Long/Appalachian trial crossed over the road. We followed the trail a little, but we weren't really planning on a full hike - but we will definitely be back next summer.

Saturday was fun too - should have a post about that adventure soon.

Snowtober: Denver vs Albany

The past two weeks have consisted of work and snow. I went to the WCRP open science conference in Denver last week which was great in numerous ways. Not only did I get to speak to a lot of work people and get some great ideas for my current research (and my previous research actually) but I saw a lot of people that I hadn't seen in a very long time (including my undergraduate dissertation advisor). It also reminder me of how much I missed Colorado. Sunday and Monday were beautiful clear blue skies and 80F days. Tuesday and Wednesday it snowed! Here are the pre and post snow pictures of the state capital building that I had a great view of from my 21st floor hotel room:

I was fortunate to leave Denver on Friday - post Denver snow and pre northeast snow. The first snow for Albany was actually on the Thursday but the "big" storm (big for October) was overnight Saturday into Sunday. We got about 4 inches of snow and were lucky not to lose any power (unlike so many people in the NE). It was the most snow the Matt had seen (apart from a ski trip to Colorado)! We took the cat in the snow and I think she quite liked it - she definitely enjoyed watching it fall from the window. It hadn't been snowing too long when we took these pictures on Saturday:

We had a nice walk to the diner on Sunday for brunch (the roads were fine to drive but it was fun to walk). I had pancakes with nutella and bananas and it was so good. On Monday I came home to a lovely surprise package (thanks parents) and a cat who was just hanging out with her tongue out. All in all, a great two weeks of work and snow!!

It's chili time

I owe a blog, in fact, I owe several. I got back from my conference in Denver on Friday night (blog soon) and due to being super tired and and getting snow on Saturday/Sunday (blog soon - we had power and it wasn't bad here) I didn't have the desire to stare at my computer.

However, because we seem to have entered winter, Saturday seemed to be the perfect time to make chili. My (semi) vegetarian ways (no land meat) make chili quite different to most peoples chili but it is still super delicious, really filing and warms you up nicely!

Some people might be surprised that I like such a dish considering when I was younger I wouldn't eat the following ingredients: kidney beans, corn, garlic, mushrooms, bell peppers, hot peppers and I would only eat raw carrots and onions if they were cut up really small. So essentially, out of all of the ingredients, the only things I would have eaten were celery and tomatoes. Good job I'm not quite as fussy any more!!


Ingredients:
4 cloves garlic (the more the better)
1 cup onion
3/4 cup carrots
3/4 cup celery
2 bell peppers
2 hot peppers (we've used Anaheim and jalapenos but you can do whatever you like)
1.5 cups mushrooms
2 cans (~28 oz) fire roasted tomatoes
1 can dark red kidney beans
1 can corn
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (if you have them)
1.5 teaspoons dried oregano
1.5 teaspoons dried basil
1 tablespoon olive oil

Recipe:

1. Heat oil and cook garlic, onion and carrots until tender (about 5 minutes, depending on size of carrots)
2. Add celery, bell peppers, hot peppers and chili powder and cook for 6-7 minutes
3. Add mushrooms and cook for 4 minutes more
4. Add beans, corn and tomatoes (with all the juices) and cumin, oregano and basil. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down, cover and simmer for around 25 minutes.
5. Enjoy with some shredded cheese on top :-)

TRY IT - maybe you won't even miss the meat!! Plus it's very healthy (especially if you get low-sodium cans).

Music

I am alone in my office most of the time (my office mate lives 2.5 hours away in Connecticut so isn't here much) and for the most part it is pretty quiet in here. In the mornings I without fail listen to the "listen again" Chris Moyles show (BBC Radio 1) on listen again. It makes me laugh and sometimes it's the only way I know about British things!! It does distract me sometimes though when it's particularly good and I realise I have been sitting here listening and not doing anything for quite a long time.

In the afternoons I usually listen to Pandora. I think for most people their choice of music is quite personal - I'm sure some people would be horrified at some of the music on my iPod! This is my Pandora station list right now. I never know what kind of mood I'll be in and what I'll need to listen too. Judge me all you like :-)

All For You Radio

Biffy Clyro Radio

Closer Radio

Disney (Children's) Radio

Everlong (Live) Radio 

Keane Radio 

Kings Of Leon Radio

KT Tunstall Radio

Mumford & Sons Radio

Noah And The Whale Radio

Oasis Radio

Patience Radio

Scouting For Girls Radio

Set Fire To The Rain Radio

Take That Radio 

The Kooks Radio

 

Try them out if you haven't heard of them. You might find something you like!

 

On a side note, I'm off to Denver next week for the World Climate Research Program open science conference. It'll be my first time back in Colorado since I moved in December 2007!

Changing Glaciers

I came upon this really interesting  audio/video slide show on the BBC news website today. It shows photos of various glaciers from the Himalayas. Cool pictures but who cares right? Well the photographer was taking pictures from the exact spots that previous explorers had taken pictures from on some of the first expeditions up Mount Everest and other Himalayan mountains. The contrasts between the glaciers today and 80ish years ago are astonishing.

I highly recommend it to anyone interested in climate, glaciers, hydrology, photography, mountaineering, climate change, water supply.....

BBC News - Rivers of Ice

Prospect and Peebles

Forecast highs in the upper 70s and clear blue skies for the weekend. In October. In New York. It would have been criminal to not go outside!!

We headed North on Saturday to Lake George Village (about 60 miles North of Albany). Neither of us had been past Saratoga Springs before so it was good to go somewhere new. We found a trail up Prospect Mountain which essentially went straight West from the lake. You could drive up to the top but who wants to do that on such a great day!

The trail was 3 miles round trip, mainly in nice shady trees. It was a little rocky though. We successfully managed to go off trail for a while and ended up scrambling through some pretty thick trees, scrub and rocks and approached the top from the West rather than the East. My calves are still sore today!!

The views of the Lake, the Adirondacks and the high peaks were perfect. The trees have started to turn to fall colours, although I'm told it only gets better. It seems so long since I've seen real autumn colours.

The hike back down was pretty tough on the knees but we made it. We then went to the Adirondack pub and brewery for a late lunch/early dinner. I had the bobcat blonde and the apple ale, both were delicious! Beers and food were followed by a enjoyable round of mini golf at Pirates Cove - flashbacks to Orlando holidays!!! I am glad to say that I won, but only just.

Sunday we went out to Cohoes and Peebles Island for a long (well long for me - 40 minutes) run. I jogged around the island twice and it felt good. I was planning to go around again if Matt wasn't back at our meeting point. Those new shoes must have been working. I even found a snake on our walk after the run. It was an eastern garter snake we think.

We stopped at Cohoes Falls on the way home. When Henry Hudson was sailing up the now Hudson River, this is where he stopped. He thought that he would find his way to another ocean as the river is tidal even in Albany but the Cohoes Falls scuppered those plans!

All in all, a great weekend, capped off with red velvet cupcakes and Matt's first day at work today.

Howe Caverns

On this rainy first day of October we ventured underground. We headed to Howe Caverns near Cobbleskill, NY (about 30 miles from Albany). I think the last time I went to some caves was in Colorado Springs so it had been a while. These caves were pretty well constructed for the tourists. An elevator took us down 156 feet to the caves and paved walkways and lights had been put through the whole cave, which made it a little less "cavey" but it was still fun.

We got to follow the underground river Sticks about half a mile through the caverns, seeing all kinds of stalactites and stalagmites and over rock formations.

 At the end of the cave we got to go on a little boat ride along the narrow underground lake and back again. They turned out all the lights at the end of the lake and yes, it was very very dark. Definitely made me want to do the real caving adventure that they offer.

We also got to see where they stored all the cheese. Yes, I said cheese! They get cheese from a local creamery and they age it for a year down in the caves. We brought some in the shop and had some very delicious fresh bread and cheese for dinner once we got home. It was really good sharp cheddar cheese which is my favourite.

Anyhow, the caves were fun. Worth a visit - maybe the views would have been better without all the cloud and rain. We stopped at Rubbin' Butts BBQ in Cobbleskill for a late lunch (well Matt had pulled pork and I had mac and cheese) - he was a big fan of the pork. They randomly had the end of the Texas A&M vs Arkansas game on the TV so we got to see A&M lose from NY. Not that either of us were particularly bothered though!

It was a fun Saturday. Made even better by Matt getting offered a job at an engineering consultancy firm on Friday!! Hopefully it all works out. It's very exciting news :-)

Quick updates

This will be brief as I'm feeling all full of cold today. Not sure if I got it from the pool, from a coworker who was sick last week or from one of the germy undergrads that don't wash their hands in the bathroom. Nonetheless, I feel pretty terrible but somehow managing to get a little work done.

Didn't get enough sleep last night partly due to the cold and partly because the cat really enjoys sleeping on top of me in bed (on my front, back or side) and she was on top form last night (I'll pretend that she sensed my illness and was trying to heal me - in reality, I'm probably just softer than the bed).

We spent most of Saturday afternoon at the new English pub downtown (The Olde English Pub) where I had some almost right fish and chips (I'm very picky) and Matt had a battered sausage and chips which he enjoyed. Last week involved several meals out at some of my favourite places in town (Blue Spice and The Pump Station) as an old friend was in town from Finland giving a seminar. We did our undergrad together in Reading and Oklahoma and probably haven't seen her in 7 years so it was a good week!

May have to skip our Tuesday run this evening which I'm already feeling guilty about.

New Shoes

I decided to actually spend some of my birthday money this weekend and buy some new trainers/running shoes. I was trying to figure out how old my trainers I use for running/working out were and it turns out that my parents got them for me when I was in Oklahoma... in 2005!! I think that is pretty good value for money.

I wanted some new, lighter and better fitting shoes seeing as I'm running a lot more than I used to. I spent a while wondering around the various shoe shops in the mall trying to find the best shoes that they actually had in my size. My little US size 6 feet (that's UK 3.5) proved quite hard to find good shoes for. I could have got youth shoes but I really wanted some good quality supportive shoes. I eventually settled on some Nike shoes that actually fit well and felt comfortable. Surprisingly they are pink! Well, white with pink accents and laces. They had some grey ones but not in my size so I went for comfort over colour.

Last night was my first run in the new shoes and it was a success. A nice 4 miles and it felt good - a little faster than my last 4 miles and my feet felt noticeably lighter. Hopefully they stay comfortable and don't end up stretching too much.

I realize that this probably wasn't the most interesting post. Feel free to make fun of me for my tiny feet!

Thatcher State Park

This Saturday we decided to enjoy the cooler weather (highs in the 60s) at Thatcher State Park, just a few miles southwest of our apartment. We walked along the edge of the escarpment that had views all across eastern New York, downtown Albany and to the mountains of Vermont.

Further along the escarpment we could see two waterfalls flowing over the edge so we walked along the ridge towards them.

I overheard some people talking about Indian Ladder trail so we walked towards the trail head and down three flights of metal steps on the face of the cliff. The trail ran along the escarpment, about half way down. Those who enjoy geology would have loved seeing all the layers of the rocks and the streams trickling out of the limestone.

The trail ended up going behind both the waterfalls which was really cool, they were pretty big too! I'm in the front for scale in this first one.

Back up the stairs at the end of the trail (it wasn't that long, less than a mile) we came upon a car shown at the trail head where you had to pay to park. Glad we parked at the other end of the park where it was free! Instead of looking at the cars we walked along another trail away from the ridge. There were a lot of hiking/skiing/biking/snowmobiling trails back there and they were pretty deserted - we only saw 3 other people up there. Hopefully we can go back and snowshoe some of those trails when the snow comes.

On the way home we were starving (didn't bring any lunch with us) and we stopped at Smithy's Tavern in Voorheesville, NY which was a bar/pizza joint. It was delicious and good value. We each had a small - I had pineapple and spinach and Matt had a hot Hawaiian and we just about finished them. I will definitely go back there for pizza!

All in all, a pretty successful day.

Swimming verdict

The jury is still out. I wasn't impressed with the swim club last night but I'm willing to give it a little more time seeing as it was the first practice after the summer. We barely swam 1000 yards in an hour which in my opinion is pretty pathetic... no intervals or anything. Maybe when less people start showing up it'll get better. If not, I'll just start swimming by myself after work and get a better workout!!

Swim, bike, run

Since January (stereotypical I know) I've been trying to lose a few pounds and get in better shape as I had started to look a little squidgy around the edges. I wasn't doing any kind of special fad diet or training for anything in particular, just trying to not snack as much and doing more exercise. I have been using a great app on my phone to keep track of everything called myfitnespal (there is also a website). It has really really helped me and it's great to see that weight graph headed downwards.

All was going well during the spring while I was playing polo and swimming hard four times a week. It was even going well during the summer when I replaced polo and swimming with running on the treadmill (it was just too hot outside) and lifting weights. The problem came when my parents came to visit us in Albany... two weeks of eating out at least once a day and almost no exercise. Lets just say a few pounds sneaked back on.

I needed a plan. There is no water polo team here (at least not one I can find). There aren't any coached masters swim workouts on this side of the city either. I am riding my bike to work every day, about 3 miles each way, so that was a start. I needed something and running was it.

I am not a runner. I never have been and never will be a runner but I know how fast it whips me back into shape. Matt is a good runner and so we've been heading out and running 3 times a week. This weekend we ran about 3 miles along some trails in the Albany Pine Bush. I somehow managed to trip about 5 times but not hit the ground (I don't think I'll be so lucky next time)! Last night we ran 4 miles around our neighbourhood. All you hardcore running people are probably thinking "4 miles, that's nothing", but I'm just happy that I ran the whole way despite it not even being close to flat.

I feel good after a run (until the dehydration headaches kick in), and it's got the weight loss back on track but I am craving the pool. I contacted the UAlbany swim club  and they have their first practice tonight so maybe, just maybe, I'll have some people to swim with. Perhaps I can even start doing some masters swim meets again!

9/11

I wanted to say a little something on this anniversary. 10 years ago I was 18 and just about to start my first year at university and had spent the summer working half days at the city council in the accounts department. I got home from work just before 2 pm (9 am in NY) and my brother and I watched all the events unfold. I remember thinking it was just at accident at first, like so many people did, but then everything changed. I called my mum at work to tell her, but she had already heard. She didn't think we should be watching all the pictures because some of the images were so unpleasant. We had to watch, it was impossible not to.

10 years ago I couldn't have imagined that I would be living in Albany, the state capitol of New York. The local fire department sounded it's sirens this morning at the times the planes hit the towers.

We will all remember the impact that this event has had on ourselves and on the rest of the world. It wasn't just Americans that died that day. More British people died on 9/11 than on the 7/7 tube attacks. Innocent people from all over the world were killed that day and in events since and we should remember not just the impact on America, but the whole world.

Rain rain rain...

It's raining. It's been raining all week. I rode my bike to work in the rain this morning. The rain falling from the sky didn't get me too wet but the spray from the road was horrendous. I'm quite damp this morning. Perhaps I need to keep a change of clothes in my desk for such moments, or is that a little weird?

Since we moved here there has been an earthquake, a hurricane, a tornado and floods.  This is just plain crazy to me. What will be next?

Work is going well, although it is always tricky starting a whole new project from scratch. My office is outside of two large-ish classrooms and this apparently leads the undergraduates to believe they can just stroll into my office and ask me about their class schedule, where rooms are and where their TAs offices are. I know the answer to none of these questions. Hopefully they'll stop soon. I also hope they decide that just walking into someones office and using the sink isn't appropriate. Yes I have a sink in my office. Perhaps the impact of throwing my laptop from a 2nd floor window (as opposed to the 10th as in Texas) isn't quite satisfying enough, so I have a sink instead.

Fingers crossed that Matt's job hunt gets some good news soon.

Caroga Lake

Unlike at Texas A&M, at SUNY Albany Labor day is a holiday. Despite the not so good forecast we decided to go get some fresh air seeing as I didn't need to work on Monday. After much debating (it's nice to be able to have so many choices), we decided on Caroga Lake in the Southern Adirondacks, just inside Adirondack Park.

After a short (only an hour) drive up to the lake, we set up camp and headed out on hike number 1 up to Nine Corner Lake. It was an easy hike up to the lake and the skies stayed blue. The lake was crystal clear, as promised, so despite not bring our swimming gear, we went in for a swim anyway. It felt so good in there! It really would be a great place for a long open water swim. Matt jumped off the large rock close to shore a few times but I couldn't quite manage to drag myself to the top.

The hike back down was smooth and we headed back to camp to try some fishing in the lake. No sign of any fish.  Not even any minnows. But it was still nice to just lay in the sun and enjoy the view. Grilled shrimp and vegetables were for dinner and some grilled bananas with m&ms inside were the perfect end to the day!

We slept pretty horribly. Partly due to having inadequate pillows, and partly due to the loudest snorer on earth being in one of the nearby campsites. The ranger came round early and warned us of thunderstorms headed our way. So we went out for hike number 2 to try and beat the rain up to Kane Mountain. It was pretty steep on the way up and unfortunately the view from the observation at the top consisted of the inside of the cloud. We did see some pretty cool nature on the way up though. Does anyone know what type of fungus this is?

We took the long way home and checked out Amsterdam (nothing to report) and enjoyed a late lunch of five guys. They have real Heinz malt vinegar for chips (fries) - hence being my favourite burger place! The cat was very happy to see us when we got home. All in all, a short but successful first camping trip in NY.

Irene

I figured it was appropriate to write a little something about hurricane Irene. We knew it was coming towards us several days before it arrived - a real tribute to the improvements in hurricane track forecasts. It started raining at our apartment around 11pm on Saturday evening and it stopped sometime around 6pm on Sunday. It was pretty heavy at times and a few strong wind gusts, but nothing really terrible. The power flickered a couple of times on Sunday morning but nothing notable.

I suppose we were lucky. A lot of areas in the North East had it a lot worse than us. Vermont had huge floods, as did Greene County to the south of us, which you can see in the image below.

This is a map of rainfall as measured by the local radar. There are errors associated with measuring rainfall this way but it gives a good indication of rain distribution across the local area. The radar shows 3-4 inches around Albany, but rain gauges at the weather service office and airport measured 5.1in and 5.33in respectively.

Coming from Texas - where the drought is still ongoing - this felt like a lot of rain! We left Texas in July, and the hot, dry summer was already wearing very thin. This year has been massively dry and hot, as you can see from the scatter plot below (from an article by John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas state climatologist and professor at Texas A&M).

WOW!! I think my energy bill would have been through the roof if I'd stayed through August. Here's hoping for some relief for all those I know living and working in Texas and I won't tease you with stories of rain any longer.

A New Start

So this is it, the blog has begun. I am going to make every possible effort to update this regularly but I can't promise that I will always have something interesting to say.

Not only is this a new blog, but I'm hoping to chronicle life in a new place and with a new job. Matt and I moved 1800 miles from Texas to Albany, NY in July and after an extended period of waiting for immigration to process my work authorization card (don't get me started on that), I finally started my new job on August 15th. I'm working as a post doctoral research assistant at SUNY (State University of New York) Albany. I'm working on decadal variability and predictability of the West African Monsoon in the latest generation of global climate models that will be used in the next IPCC (Intergovernmental panel on climate change) report. I really enjoy what I do even if there are days I want to throw my computer out of the window.

I wish I could have begun with a more interesting post, but it's a Thursday and aside from having to weave my way across a busy intersection on my bike this morning as the traffic lights were in flashing mode, nothing eventful has happened.

Hopefully my bike ride home will be less stressful!