Snow

I thought I'd add a little reminder to myself of what the weather has been like in my first winter of 2014. We had our 3rd big snow a few days ago, and once again, the temps have dropped like a stone. It is snowing right now, but we are only expecting 1-2 inches today. Which is good, since I will be leaving for Chicago the day after tomorrow!

Joel's early birthday party is tomorrow, and I still have a pirate ship cake to create...I'll have to wear a face mask, since I caught the cold Joel had at the beginning of the week. I'm hopeful it will be mild, so that my travel will be pleasant.

One more week in the office

One of my colleagues said to me today "Cecile, for someone on sabbatical, you sure are in the office a lot." Well, I don't have a home office, and BU is only a 7 minute walk, so here I am. I'll admit I'm in the "How the heck am I going to get everything done?" mode, with just 10 days left, but things will get done, simply because they have to. I've got another paper I'm working on with a professor here, and I want to have a solid draft before I go; I have some housekeeping for another research project that will continue while I'm in Chile (A shout out to my WONDERFUL research assistants, Erin, Kelly and Ciarra!). Other than actual housekeeping as in cleaning my office, that is pretty much it for my university work.

Next week, in addition to tying up loose ends at home, we are also going to make sure Joel has an early birthday party with his friends, the day before I leave. I'll try to remember to post a picture of the pirate ship cake I've been requested to make...wish me luck with that!

Hospital Fun

We just got back from 3 hours in the emergency room with Joel. He's fine now, his stomach pain is most likely the result of his second does of the oral typhoid vaccine he took yesterday. About 10 percent of people will get this reaction...we are glad it wasn't appendicitis! So the next step will be to have him get the injection version of the vaccine.

Chile is quite safe as far as this sort of thing goes. The only inoculations recommended (as of this writing) is to get hep A, typhoid, and of course a flu shot. Since hep A is now standard for kids, and we get our flu shots every year, this was a piece of cake-at least until today!

The first winter

Along with two summers, one also has THREE winters (and two falls, but no spring).

The weather report from noaa.gov this morning for Peoria follows. This is not the average here-in fact, the temps (-18 tonight and -9 for a high tomorrow) happen every 20 or 30 years. This is my 10th winter in Peoria, and I've never experienced anything like this in my 51 years, anywhere. Looking forward to my second winter in June and July in Viña!