I've been leaving all of the writing to Michael, but since its a rainy day and our plans to finally move the weinerbagel II out to the house are on hold, I figured that I would take a few minutes and say hi to all and add some thoughts.
The house is very nice. Its not huge, but has the feeling of Gram's house (before she fixed it up) or maybe the old farm house on Doering's mountain in its best days. They've done a nice job updating it though with stainless steel appliances and new carpet, and its more a feeling than anything specific about it. We're planning on adding some fresh paint and will be happy to get all of our stuff from Baltimore. We'll probably get a new bed and a new couch before then. Its amazing to me how little I miss TV and that kind of stuff. Still, the internet will be on next thursday. That will be a relief since it'll help Michael with his job hunt and allow us to communicate better during the day. Our cell phones are lousy here but we haven't gotten new ones yet.
The dogs do LOVE it, and are thrilled that they can just run outside. Duke has been pretty good at coming back when he starts to wander too far away, but there really isn't much trouble he could get into anyway other than wandering too near another of the .... three houses within a mile or so of us and scaring the Dickens out of someone. The weiner dog prefers to stay close and practically underfoot, so she doesn't go far anyway. I'm not sure if the neighbors cat is keeping its distance from Duke or the other way around, but every since she gave Duke a bloody nose for getting in her face, we haven't seen much of her. The neighbors do have what looks like a husky that will wander by from time to time. Her name is Maya and she will show up on the porch for a treat and then head back home. Other than her, looks like Duke's new friends are going to be deer, turkey, peacocks, phesants, and if Michael is REALLY lucky, an elk or two.
Duke hasn't been allowed to do any playing since we moved in. The first day we were in the house, he snagged his bad leg while getting up from laying in my blankets and proceded to dance around on three legs for a day. I called the vet and confirmed that Grand Forks has a surgeon that will do a TPLO on his knee (the same surgery he had on the other knee), but since then he's been back walking on it. We'll put off the surgery a bit longer as long as he's using it, and continue to rest him and watch. Not only is it expensive, but the 6 months of restricted activity and recovery was hard on both of us last time!
Grand Forks is... nice. There isn't really another word for it. We've been here almost a month and today is the first lousy weather day we've had. Any other storm kind of just blew through and the sun was right back out. Today is rainy and dreary though. Looks like we may get a few more days of this before the gorgeous weather returns. My favorite things are the huge sky (we're right next to "big sky country" after all), the frequent rainbows, healthy breezes and all of the gorgeous sunshine. The clouds here are amazing too. Must be all of the strange air currents over flat land, but I think that everyone is getting cloud pictures for Christmas this year! This is probably the sunniest place that I have ever lived. Between the sun and the wind, North Dakota is remarkably progressive in the whole alternative energy thing. The university has a huge institute devoted to it (the EERC or environmental energy research center I think).
I am starting to feel the stress of Baltimore disappearing and Michael is the happiest I have seen him in probably a year or more. You can breathe here, and with all of the fresh (and I mean fresh -- pulled from the ground that morning and still covered in dirt) vegetables, I feel like we're adding years to our lives out here. I wish that I could have been here early enough to plant a garden here, but that wasn't going to happen. I'm hoping to find some tomatoes to can though and maybe some other goodies to get us through the winter. Our favorite vegetable source is this little old man in Larimore. he's probably 90+ years old and sits out with his cart and milk crates full of goodies. Michael keeps insulting him trying to give him more money but he won't hear of it. A 5 pound bag of fresh beans were about $1. Same for giant bunches of carrots, zucchini, and a big bag of cherry tomatoes. Will probably have to find a zucchini bread recipe to keep those from going bad. Add in fresh bread/buns from the bakery plus fresh meat from the butcher and you get a very happy Joyce. y'all know that I love food!
The lab is good. I got a ton done today getting things set up. Michael was a big help for the tall person jobs. It's probably still a good weeks worth of labor, but it'll be ready when the grad students show up around September 1st. I'm working on safety protocols, animal care certifications, and budgeting for my start up package now. I'll be excited to get to work though and start doing actual research again. My favorite is still my office though. It'll be even better when I finally get all of my stuff from Hopkins and can decorate. I do have a plant though, and I love having my own office to turn on the radio, put my feet up, and work without others over my shoulders. I've started to outline my grant plans for the next six months and they will keep me busy and hopefully allow me to recruit a post-doc or two. Right now, I have money for a technician or a post-doc and a grad student, but I won't even try and start hiring yet. Too much to do.
I guess I'll wrap this up for now. lots of love. Come visit.
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