heading to Nevada....

Ready for fun at Inspiration Unlimited!

Thank you Sal for the early AM airport run!

a new 'do for IU

Well shame on me... I'm getting ready for my next adventure before even blogging about my last.  Seriously, I *meant* to post about our Grand Teton National Park visit before now.... I will soon, promise.  Time just seems to evaporate before my eyes lately (I mean, honestly, how did it get to be mid-September ?!?).  Thanks to so many of you for asking to see our park pics!

Next week I'm heading to Nevada to attend Inspiration Unlimited (IU), a scrapbooking retreat by fab celebrity sb'ing designer Teresa Collins.  {a girl's getaway}  It'll be my first time attending, and I'm so thankful that I made it off the waiting list (yes, it's that popular!) because I'm really missing the no-longer-held annual Creative Escape event.  And as I always do, I've added a special "bonus" destination onto the trip... it's at the Nevada/Arizona border... any guesses?  I'm even taking a red-eye flight back to Florida just so that I have time to go there!

But before the fun can begin, I've been working my way through a mile-long to-do list, both at home and the lab.  Deadlines galore this month, so I'm gonna welcome the break.  I did manage to squeeze in a hair appointment tho!

remembering....

On the FAU campus today:

Labor Day weekend

Hi everyone!

I hope you enjoyed the long holiday weekend? (for my readers outside the U.S., it was Labor Day here)

The weather was really nice here in SoFla, so Sal and I enjoyed some beach time

and a nature walk at the wetlands (we even saw one of the kittens from the [elusive] bobcat family that lives there!).

 

There's also excitement among crafters here in Delray Beach because Michaels opened a store here over the weekend! :-). There are other M's stores 5-10 miles away, but it's nice to have a 'hometown' one now. I was so busy enjoying the outdoors that I haven't been to their Grand Opening yet... but the festivities are happening all week long. Will check it out!

I'll be back soon with a post about our visit to Grand Teton National Park....

Have a great week ahead,

Susan

Isaac was wet, but not too wild

We seem to have weathered Tropical Storm Isaac pretty well here in SoFla... lots of wind, pounding rain at times, but amazingly we didn't lose power and the there's not too much debris to clean up in the yard.
{very thankful}
Sending our best to those still in Isaac's path.....

The worst of it here was best summed-up by the note on the front page of today's Sun-Sentinel:

preparing for Isaac

We've gathered our hurricane supplies... water, food, medicines (Buddy's too!), etc. etc. Hope we don't lose power, water, and all that.
{remembering Hurricane Wilma}
We're (barely) in the "red zone"... still gotta monitor this one!
Stay safe everyone..... I guess these storms are part of living in paradise. ;-)

my Uncle Phil

Hello everyone ... been offline for a while because Sal and I were traveling in remote areas of national parks with spotty and often no Internet access (more about our journey in a future post). 

I'm sad to share that while we were traveling, my Uncle Phil in Canada passed away. :-( Sal and I are terribly sad. He was a special person! He and my Aunt Lois were married for 50 years, he was a dedicated teacher and academician, he generously volunteered his time/talents/treasure to his church and community, and was a fun and kind person. He and I shared a love of travel... recently, he and my aunt enjoyed a trip to the Holy Land and we pored over their pictures together. 

Sal and Uncle Phil shared a love of learning languages, both are fluent in several ...Uncle Phil spoke Latin, French, German, Spanish, some Italian, and probably others that he was too modest to mention.  A special memory for us is that Uncle Phil took Sal to breakfast the morning of our wedding day, 22 years ago.  He and my aunt and grandma traveled from Canada to Florida (in the August heat!) to attend our wedding; we were so honored.

Last fall, we were all together in Canada to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday.  Uncle Phil arranged a special surprise for her party... he and his singing group performed songs from her era, and she was so obviously delighted! A video clip is posted HERE in my October 25, 2011 post...(Uncle Phil is the 3rd gentleman from the right, with the beard and glasses.)  Sorry, but the video may not be supported by all browsers, particularly mobile devices and older versions of Internet Explorer.

We will miss Uncle Phil.... sending sincere condolences to my aunt and my cousins, their 5 children.

Susan

politically correct

Had a blast in DC ... time to JetBlue home!

More soon,
Susan

capital city fun !!

Traveling to the fab city of Washington, DC today for a business trip ... but you know me, I'll be turning it into a travel "experience"! It's my 3rd visit to this internationally-diverse and historic city... love its vibe! Looking forward to exploring it even more....

I'll be back soon with details!

Susan

go Fourth and celebrate!

Happy 4th of July!

Hoping to enjoy some time in the pool today, but right now it's thundering --- WAAAHHH !!

Looking forward to fireworks tonight tho, Florida style ... on the beach!

Have a fun holiday!  :-)

Susan

wet & wild weather

Florida's getting DRENCHED this weekend! Lots of wind too, all from Tropical Storm Debby. And hurricane season is just getting started...... {sigh}

summer? yes, please!

Happy summer!

Today's officially the 1st day of summer, my favorite season in Florida ... yes it's hot, but I love the longer days, brighter sunshine, the more laid-back pace. Oh, and the lack of "snowbird" traffic, LOL ! (no offense to my northern readers, but wow our population swells about 20% here in the winter, and with it road congestion)

To me, summer's all about simple pleasures, like enjoying a ginormous grape slush in the pool !!

summer lovin'. lovin' summer.

catching-up ....

Hello everyone!

Whoa, it has been over a month since I posted anything ... that might just be a record for me!  But, I have a bit of an excuse... unfortunately, I was in the hospital for 4 days, and then had some recovery time afterwards.

In mid-May, Sal and I were minutes away from leaving home to drive to Tampa to attend a chemistry conference ... his entire research group was presenting their work, pretty exciting!  Unfortunately, Sal didn't get to attend any of it.  We had just finished packing the car and I was gathering Buddy's medicines to pack, when I got the most excruciating pain in my upper abdomen.  This was no ordinary "tummy ache"!  I was trying to lay down, let it subside, but it wasn't getting any better ... and then I got pale ... and shaky.  Something was definitely WRONG!  Thankfully, this didn't happen while we were on the road.

Sal took me to the ER ... after 2 strong doses of morphine (thank Heaven for it!), I finally was calmed and out of pain.  I was in such pain that I was thrashing and ripped out the IV catheter that had been inserted in the back of my hand; the nurse had to put another one into my arm as Sal tried to keep me still.  And I was so frightened ... I had never been to the hospital before (lucky, I know!) and was worried about the cause of this.  A CT scan quickly revealed that I had gallstones and some of those rascals, especially a large one, had escaped out of my gallbladder and into a bile duct --- OUCH !!  The good news was that this was curable, not life-threatening ... we don't "need" our gallbladders to live.

So, long story short, I had to have 2 surgeries ... one to remove the stones from the duct, and then another to remove that pesky gallbladder.  Surgery also made me nervous, I was trying to wrap my mind around all of this!

Sal sweetly brought me newspapers, which I love to read, but I didn't have the energy

But with Sal's love and help during and after, I am back to normal, back to the lab ... back to LIFE!

 

I'm not exactly sure why I didn't blog about this sooner?  I think I just really wasn't in the mood to "re-visit" the whole ordeal.  It kind of stunned me ...  not to mention the afterthought of the disappointment of missing the conference (and the spa appointment I had booked in the beautiful resort that was the conference venue) {sigh}

But thanks for listening ... and thank you so much to everyone for your thoughts, prayers, cards, calls, e-mails, and text messages to check on me.  They were SO appreciated !!

Enjoy today,
Susan

congratulations to Sal !!!

I have EXCITING news to share!

 

Sal was recently named the 2012 Researcher Of The Year at the Full Professor rank in FAU's College of Science!  I couldn't be more proud of him!  He is a dedicated and distinguished researcher and is so deserving of this honor!

The Dean of Science presented him with a beautiful engraved plaque (and even more fun --- a check, LOL) at an awards ceremony:

I joke with Sal that he has won the "entire collection" of the Researcher Of The Year awards now, since they're awarded at each level of professorship ... Assistant, Associate, and Full.  And he has won all 3 !!

Congratulations, Sal !!!  I love you sweetheart !!!

Earth Day 2012

UPDATED on April 25: 

Breaking news today from the Jane Goodall Institute!  The date for movie ticket sale donations has been extended to MAY 3 !!  Enjoy a movie while helping save & protect chimpanzees....

Hi there ... hope you enjoyed the weekend?

Did you celebrate Earth Day in a fun or special way?  I'd love to hear about it!  Sal and I saw the new (family-friendly) nature film Chimpanzee ... fabulous cinematography!  You can watch the official trailer HERE.  While reminding us all of the fragile status of our fellow creatures and their habitat (although I wish there had been more emphasis on this), the film tells the story of an adorable orphan named Oscar:

The best part? A portion of ticket sales (on or before April 26) will be donated to the Jane Goodall Institute to help them continue their amazing work protecting these precious animals.  So swing in to a theater soon and meet lovable Oscar!  :-)  

We also took a nature walk at our local wetlands, Green Cay Nature Center.  It was so special to see newborn baby birds in their nests!  An Earth Day treat!

Earth Day is also my parents' wedding anniversary ... and yesterday they celebrated their 45th!  Congratulations, M & D !!

Have a great week ahead,

a milestone for Buddy!

Today is a day to CELEBRATE !!!

THREE years ago today Buddy was having extensive (and scary!) surgery ... a large cancer tumor was removed from his lung, along with 3 lung lobes! We are so THANKFUL that the tumor was operable, that Buddy came through the surgery well, and that he was strong enough to begin the necessary chemotherapy treatments shortly afterward.

Although he has since (sadly) been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, he is doing well on his medications and we're enjoying every day with our precious beagle. We love you, Buddy!!! :-)

a Presidential day!

Today is an exciting day here on the FAU campus!


President Obama will be here to give an economic address! And even more exciting? I won a ticket to attend !!! FAU held a ticket lottery for the campus community (the general public was not included)...faculty, staff and students only. That was still THOUSANDS of people vying for tickets, and I feel so lucky to have won mine!

Campus will be hectic today with traffic and parking issues, but it'll be worth it. President Obama is only the second sitting US President to visit FAU (the first was President Johnson). So this event is historic .. and I'm excited to be part of it!

The White House will stream the event LIVE online starting at 2:45 PM (EST), on FAU's homepage. Look for me in the crowd! (Sal isn't attending -- he has to teach then, bummer! -- classes have not been canceled today)

happy Easter to all my peeps!

off-the-charts cuteness!

{photo courtesy TreeHugger.com}

OMG, isn't this 2-month-old baby manatee just so adorable?? 25 pounds of PRECIOUS!

But what isn't cute is that he had to be rescued; he was found in the Amazon, languishing near his mother's body. She was a victim of poachers. :-(

Special thanks to the conservation group Friends Of The Manatee for rescuing this helpless orphan!

Enjoy the holiday weekend,