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!