March log
Journal log from last month, lightly edited to scrub names.
01 m Temps this week will have lows in the teens and ~32 highs. A short ski after dinner at Carr by myself (one fast loop; ~15 min)
02 t short ski w E after dinner, at dusk. Temps to ~33 today; the melt has started :( Saw a big owl by the bridge at Carr; could see his big eyes looking down at us.
03 w skate ski in early am at Briggs Woods golf course. Very nice. Unexpectedly cold (single digits). Frost on trees. A herd of about 11 deer.
04 h
05 f am: meet w IG students Scott, Jerry, XX, xx Peterson, xx Dobbs; pm: dinner with prospective BCB students
06 s skateski at Big Ck w E & Jeri 8:30-10. Beautiful. Had been groomed by Kevin the night before. After: lunch, then cut apple stump, then a little work reviewing XX's paper, then chip ice dam, then "freezer dinner" w E, Jeri, Jodi. Emptied the chest freezer (Jeri's peppers & tomatoes)
07 s am thru 4:20: edited XX's paper (with lots of internet distractions), and went to Borders to pick up Frommer's Northern Italy travel book. Afternoon: a long meditation session. Evening: productive editing section on Chamaecrista
The effects of the meditation session were clear and positive enough that I'd like to do this more.
08 m A miscellaneous day. Plant breeding faculty meeting; reviving the Japan invitation; receive pigeonpea seqs
09 t Japan invitation has been closed off : (
10 w
11 h
12 f
13 s slush-ski at Carr; last ski day of year? Submitted Chamae paper.
14 s clean email
15 m
16-17 t-w (0) TO ITALY long day(s) of flying: O'Hare, Munich, Verona; then to Riva dG. Mostly thinking abt research projects, focus. Exciting to see vineyards and orchards on trip to Riva dG. Evening: hike partway up Mt. Brione, looking at WW I bunkers.
18 h ITALY Last night: 1st in Italy, at Hotel Europa. To bed at 7:30. Slept alternqtely soundly and fitfully, until 7:30 am. Continental breakfast at hotel, then hiked to the Bastione, then up to two refuges, and the Capana Santa Barabara. Came down fast, meeting E just above the bastione; ~9 am - 1 pm. Striking: the steep, narrow roads/trails (with a few tiny cars!). Feral figs growing from the rock wall below the bastione. Heathers, wild cyclamen. Tall columnar cypress. Rockfalls ("evento franoso"?), and the wall built to contain the rockfall.
Lunch at a little low-budget place with French, English, and Italian food (Cafe Pars??). E: lasagne; me: bruschetta.
Afternoon: emails.... Review melon RGH paper for "Gene". Rotten: poor-quality English, thin content, no new sequences, plagiarized sentences. Dinner at 7:45: La Lionne: pizza & vino (radicchio, prosciutto). Work emails.
19 f (5) ITALY review XX NSF GEPR proposal. Work emails. Get and organize assigned DOE proposals. Afternoon: sat outside at Bar Maroni, outside the big orange/yellow church. Realization re.: work: need to start the comparative legume chapter; draft is due in one month.
Afternoon, 1h meditation (not so successful), then nap.
Evening, at Ristorante Alla Torre:
Grilled veggies (eggplant, zucchini, radicchio, tomato, pepper, olive oil. And buffalo mozzarella w/ tomato. And fresh flatbread, unadorned.
Night: talked w Jack
20 s (2) ITALY Morning: walked through orchards and vineyards to base of Monte Brione, then up through olive orchards on the west face and occasionally along the ridge to the middle fortification (actually, most the way up).
Afternoon: Ristorante Mediteranio. To my left: tower/castle; fountain in front; royal palm at my right; big plane trees in front, at a distance, by the water. 1 pm. Had a "romano" pizza (anchovies & capers).
Later: several hours researching Verona, Mantua; and reserving hotels.
21 s (3) ITALY Continental breakfast at the hotel again. After: post to livejournal, and write these notes. Also, request to XX for reports. Start internal report myself.
E back at 11 am; picked up a good falafel sandwich from a cart by the castle on the water. Then a brisk walk to the other side of town to pick up bikes. After a couple wrong turns, made it there a little after 12. Received two fine, full-suspension mountain bikes. Biked back through town, then along the lake for a kilometer. There, the new road enters a very long tunnel through the alps, while the bike path rises and runs along the cliffs and through a succession of shorter tunnels. Truly spectacular. The road was built in the 1850s, and obviously required enormous amounts of blasting and drilling and engineering. The cliffs above are wrapped in mesh and wire to help minimize rockfalls. Several areas have long switchbacks, and the road runs over stone arches in some places. After perhaps three miles of this, the old road turns and enters a canyon, and meets the new road as that one leaves its tunnel. We biked on the shoulder for 300 meters (frightening, as there wasn't much shoulder, and it was densely foggy). Then, with relief, dropped onto a side road, across the river, and to the small access road / bike path on the other side. The more climbing for a few more miles -- steeply, through villages and meadows with an increasingly alpine look. Gorgeous spring flowers everywhere on the meadows and hillsides: snowdrops, a yellow primrose, blue pulmonaria, pinkish-yellow and white lenten rose. Finally, after more climbing, to Lago de Leandro(?) -- in fog even denser. Then back down, much much faster (though a good deal more slowly than the more hard-core cyclists who passed us periodically on the way down).
22 m Walk through Riva del Garda again; then bus to Verona airport. Talked with XX Lisch about centromeres, gene loss, XX, etc. Took a cab into Verona, to Hotel de Capuletti. Walked around town, in light rain: to the Arena, then Piazza del Erbe (ate dinner there: salmon & greens; and a sandwich w mayo & shrimp). Then through Piazza del Scaglieri, and over the river to the Roman theater (and castle above, and cloister above). Then back to the hotel, and back out to a nearby Ristorante. Had a very good meal of fish and small lobsters, and beer.
23 t Along the Austrian ramparts (outer city walls). Briefly to the train station. Then along the ramparts again to San Zeno (walked around), then over the bridge and back over the Scaglieri bridge and into the Castlveccio museum. Neat art from the 11th-16th centuries. Then back to the hotel, and worked much of the afternoon (XX internal report). Evening: to Cafe del Duca. E: fresh pasta with duck sauce, then pasta with snails. Me: bean soup, then polenta with mushrooms.
24 w Walked back to the hotel, then across the river and to the natural history museum. Fantastic fossil collection, including some flowers and a Caesalpinia leaf. Then back through town. Bought lentils, chocolates at store near Piazza del Erbe. Watched a dachshund puppy there. E bought an apple and a pear. Then sat in Piazza Bra a while, then around some more.
Afternoon: caught a taxi to Lugagnano. Walked through Lugagnano and into the fields beyond, and back. Worked a while in the hotel. Then an exploratory run back through town, looking for a restaurant or food store that might be open at 5 pm (failed, but found a pizza place that would open at 5:30). Back with E to the pizza place; a good choose-and-bake place. Then to the hotel; some email, then bed.
25 h A "car" to the airport at 5 am (25 euros!). Then Frankfurt. A few hours layover. Then Chicago, and 4 hours layover. On the plane, wrote XX analysis & team letter, and these notes.
26 f work
27 s some work, and cleaned the side lot: dug roots, burned the grass along the train tracks
28 s up early. Some work, outlining projects; service: Brian on social justice (QUEST); some more cleaning on train lot
29 m
30 t
31 w arranging XX working group mtg, and arranging for planting Apios. Got photographed at NADC. Worked a bit in afternoon with XX on tilling. Evening: dig beds. Temp: ~80. Daffodils are out.
01 h busy day of XX stuff, and arranging for planting Apios. Picked up hardware cloth w David. Evening: dig beds. Temp: 84
01 m Temps this week will have lows in the teens and ~32 highs. A short ski after dinner at Carr by myself (one fast loop; ~15 min)
02 t short ski w E after dinner, at dusk. Temps to ~33 today; the melt has started :( Saw a big owl by the bridge at Carr; could see his big eyes looking down at us.
03 w skate ski in early am at Briggs Woods golf course. Very nice. Unexpectedly cold (single digits). Frost on trees. A herd of about 11 deer.
04 h
05 f am: meet w IG students Scott, Jerry, XX, xx Peterson, xx Dobbs; pm: dinner with prospective BCB students
06 s skateski at Big Ck w E & Jeri 8:30-10. Beautiful. Had been groomed by Kevin the night before. After: lunch, then cut apple stump, then a little work reviewing XX's paper, then chip ice dam, then "freezer dinner" w E, Jeri, Jodi. Emptied the chest freezer (Jeri's peppers & tomatoes)
07 s am thru 4:20: edited XX's paper (with lots of internet distractions), and went to Borders to pick up Frommer's Northern Italy travel book. Afternoon: a long meditation session. Evening: productive editing section on Chamaecrista
The effects of the meditation session were clear and positive enough that I'd like to do this more.
08 m A miscellaneous day. Plant breeding faculty meeting; reviving the Japan invitation; receive pigeonpea seqs
09 t Japan invitation has been closed off : (
10 w
11 h
12 f
13 s slush-ski at Carr; last ski day of year? Submitted Chamae paper.
14 s clean email
15 m
16-17 t-w (0) TO ITALY long day(s) of flying: O'Hare, Munich, Verona; then to Riva dG. Mostly thinking abt research projects, focus. Exciting to see vineyards and orchards on trip to Riva dG. Evening: hike partway up Mt. Brione, looking at WW I bunkers.
18 h ITALY Last night: 1st in Italy, at Hotel Europa. To bed at 7:30. Slept alternqtely soundly and fitfully, until 7:30 am. Continental breakfast at hotel, then hiked to the Bastione, then up to two refuges, and the Capana Santa Barabara. Came down fast, meeting E just above the bastione; ~9 am - 1 pm. Striking: the steep, narrow roads/trails (with a few tiny cars!). Feral figs growing from the rock wall below the bastione. Heathers, wild cyclamen. Tall columnar cypress. Rockfalls ("evento franoso"?), and the wall built to contain the rockfall.
Lunch at a little low-budget place with French, English, and Italian food (Cafe Pars??). E: lasagne; me: bruschetta.
Afternoon: emails.... Review melon RGH paper for "Gene". Rotten: poor-quality English, thin content, no new sequences, plagiarized sentences. Dinner at 7:45: La Lionne: pizza & vino (radicchio, prosciutto). Work emails.
19 f (5) ITALY review XX NSF GEPR proposal. Work emails. Get and organize assigned DOE proposals. Afternoon: sat outside at Bar Maroni, outside the big orange/yellow church. Realization re.: work: need to start the comparative legume chapter; draft is due in one month.
Afternoon, 1h meditation (not so successful), then nap.
Evening, at Ristorante Alla Torre:
Grilled veggies (eggplant, zucchini, radicchio, tomato, pepper, olive oil. And buffalo mozzarella w/ tomato. And fresh flatbread, unadorned.
Night: talked w Jack
20 s (2) ITALY Morning: walked through orchards and vineyards to base of Monte Brione, then up through olive orchards on the west face and occasionally along the ridge to the middle fortification (actually, most the way up).
Afternoon: Ristorante Mediteranio. To my left: tower/castle; fountain in front; royal palm at my right; big plane trees in front, at a distance, by the water. 1 pm. Had a "romano" pizza (anchovies & capers).
Later: several hours researching Verona, Mantua; and reserving hotels.
21 s (3) ITALY Continental breakfast at the hotel again. After: post to livejournal, and write these notes. Also, request to XX for reports. Start internal report myself.
E back at 11 am; picked up a good falafel sandwich from a cart by the castle on the water. Then a brisk walk to the other side of town to pick up bikes. After a couple wrong turns, made it there a little after 12. Received two fine, full-suspension mountain bikes. Biked back through town, then along the lake for a kilometer. There, the new road enters a very long tunnel through the alps, while the bike path rises and runs along the cliffs and through a succession of shorter tunnels. Truly spectacular. The road was built in the 1850s, and obviously required enormous amounts of blasting and drilling and engineering. The cliffs above are wrapped in mesh and wire to help minimize rockfalls. Several areas have long switchbacks, and the road runs over stone arches in some places. After perhaps three miles of this, the old road turns and enters a canyon, and meets the new road as that one leaves its tunnel. We biked on the shoulder for 300 meters (frightening, as there wasn't much shoulder, and it was densely foggy). Then, with relief, dropped onto a side road, across the river, and to the small access road / bike path on the other side. The more climbing for a few more miles -- steeply, through villages and meadows with an increasingly alpine look. Gorgeous spring flowers everywhere on the meadows and hillsides: snowdrops, a yellow primrose, blue pulmonaria, pinkish-yellow and white lenten rose. Finally, after more climbing, to Lago de Leandro(?) -- in fog even denser. Then back down, much much faster (though a good deal more slowly than the more hard-core cyclists who passed us periodically on the way down).
22 m Walk through Riva del Garda again; then bus to Verona airport. Talked with XX Lisch about centromeres, gene loss, XX, etc. Took a cab into Verona, to Hotel de Capuletti. Walked around town, in light rain: to the Arena, then Piazza del Erbe (ate dinner there: salmon & greens; and a sandwich w mayo & shrimp). Then through Piazza del Scaglieri, and over the river to the Roman theater (and castle above, and cloister above). Then back to the hotel, and back out to a nearby Ristorante. Had a very good meal of fish and small lobsters, and beer.
23 t Along the Austrian ramparts (outer city walls). Briefly to the train station. Then along the ramparts again to San Zeno (walked around), then over the bridge and back over the Scaglieri bridge and into the Castlveccio museum. Neat art from the 11th-16th centuries. Then back to the hotel, and worked much of the afternoon (XX internal report). Evening: to Cafe del Duca. E: fresh pasta with duck sauce, then pasta with snails. Me: bean soup, then polenta with mushrooms.
24 w Walked back to the hotel, then across the river and to the natural history museum. Fantastic fossil collection, including some flowers and a Caesalpinia leaf. Then back through town. Bought lentils, chocolates at store near Piazza del Erbe. Watched a dachshund puppy there. E bought an apple and a pear. Then sat in Piazza Bra a while, then around some more.
Afternoon: caught a taxi to Lugagnano. Walked through Lugagnano and into the fields beyond, and back. Worked a while in the hotel. Then an exploratory run back through town, looking for a restaurant or food store that might be open at 5 pm (failed, but found a pizza place that would open at 5:30). Back with E to the pizza place; a good choose-and-bake place. Then to the hotel; some email, then bed.
25 h A "car" to the airport at 5 am (25 euros!). Then Frankfurt. A few hours layover. Then Chicago, and 4 hours layover. On the plane, wrote XX analysis & team letter, and these notes.
26 f work
27 s some work, and cleaned the side lot: dug roots, burned the grass along the train tracks
28 s up early. Some work, outlining projects; service: Brian on social justice (QUEST); some more cleaning on train lot
29 m
30 t
31 w arranging XX working group mtg, and arranging for planting Apios. Got photographed at NADC. Worked a bit in afternoon with XX on tilling. Evening: dig beds. Temp: ~80. Daffodils are out.
01 h busy day of XX stuff, and arranging for planting Apios. Picked up hardware cloth w David. Evening: dig beds. Temp: 84