Halloween

It was Halloween today, for those of you who weren't paying attention. And thanks to the centerpiece of W's energy policy, it was still light out at 5:30, when we headed out for some trick-or-treating.

Claire details what the jack-o-lantern should look like... "Two eyes... make them triangles. The nose should go here... and the mouth should be happy, with one tooth... on the bottom."

Claire inspects the final product

Claire, the world's cutest dragon

Another view

White Pine Hollow adventure

A high ranking Iowa DNR official said that White Pine Hollow, 25 miles west of Dubuque, may be the most spectacular of all Iowa DNR property. With that kind of endorsement, a beautiful and cool fall day and a hankering by both Claire and myself to get outside, a trip west to the Hollow seemed like the thing to do today.

The drive west from Dubuque on Highway 52 has got to be among Iowa's most beautiful, with dramatic, sweeping views over the rolling hills. Just north of Luxemburg a small sign directs those looking for WPH to follow a gravel road for a mile to a tiny parking lot, suitable for two or maybe three cars. Since information about WPH seems to be in such short supply, Claire and I simply started down the overgrown path, not knowing what the trail would be like, how far we would have to walk, or even really what to expect. The trail immediately began descending and became more of a gully, full of large rocks, than a path. About a 1/2 mile down the trail we made our way across a small stream. Perhaps 200 meters further we could see the stream began to closely follow the base of a cliff. We left the trail, which would cross the stream again and begin to head back uphill to places unknown, and cut through the woods to enter what I assume can rightfully be called a "Hollow."

Remnant white pines graced the north facing slopes and the cliffs shaded the meandering stream. Moss covered many of the rocks. Since there was no trail walking was too difficult for Claire (and she chose to remain in the backpack) and only slightly less so for myself. We made it to a nice spot along the stream and took a break to eat a snack and take pictures. Claire seemed to like it and was scanning the bluffs for deer. As luck would have it, after our snack as we were climbing one of the bluffs underneath the pines a deer rocketed across the stream, found a route up one of the cliffs and sprinted through the woods 20 meters ahead of us. From that point on Claire could do little but say "dee," "dee" as she hopefully continued to look for more deer.



White Pine Hollow is one of those little Iowa gems that you have to want to find. There certainly isn't much information out there about it that I could find, but in many ways that's probably a very good thing. I would wager that, ignoring hunting season, there can be weeks that go by where fewer than 10 people ever make their way there. I found the preserve to be much more spectacular than other, more well-known Dubuque County parks like the Mines of Spain and Swiss Valley and will certainly be going back there again, especially once Claire is old enough to walk a little better on her own over the rough terrain and I don't have to carry her on my back. Since much of the exploring of WPH seems best done off-trail, it would seem that early spring and late fall may be the best times to go as the undergrowth is much more manageable at those times.

Anybody interested in going back there with me?

Claire's pre-birthday birthday bash weekend

Last weekend Claire got a preview of next weekend's birthday bash, with her Grandpa Hoyer and Grandma Fran coming to visit and celebrate an early birthday. Aside from the great gifts, Claire also enjoyed a nice walk in the woods with them, complete with interesting leaves, fuzzy caterpillars, daddy long legs spiders and, of course, a little "rock toss."

Claire opens one of her birthday gifts.

Grandpa and dad supervise Claire during a round of rock toss.

Claire enjoys a beautiful fall day.

Claire and her dad enjoy a trail overlooking the Mighty Mississippi.

That same weekend Uncle Greg came to visit over his fall break as well.

Claire and Uncle G count (and re-count) Claire's money and put it in her bunny bank. (Note the pony tail!)

Perhaps the highlight of the weekend for Claire, though, was a trip out to watch the Loras college home cross country invitational. Claire had been to one CC meet the week before but she really got into this one and loved cheering for the runners. When she got home there was non-stop running circles through our house, and mom and dad HAD to be cheering and clapping for her everytime she ran by. She seems destined to be a runner!

It's hard to believe that in a little over a week our little girl will be two years old!

-wch

Fall along the riverfront

For Claire, nothing beats a beautiful day outside with a grandma. This past weekend Will, Claire and Nana went for a walk along Dubuque's riverfront and took in the sights (and smells!)






If you come visit Claire might take you for a walk, too. There's plenty of room in our house for guests!

Report from the lecture hall

This blog needs an update, and unfortunately, we can't find our connection cable to upload any new pictures of Claire. But I haven't written for a while, so here is a short(?) summary of how my new job has been going for me, in case anyone has been wondering.

So far, I really do like teaching! I like lecturing (it's a pretty good way to stop you from getting nervous before public speaking too - giving 6 lectures a week to ~ 40 people quickly made it no big deal) and I like working with the students in their lab sections. So far in lab they've learned about enzymes and tested the activity of an enzyme in human spit (enzymes are proteins that allow chemical reactions in our body to happen), and this unit they are learning about genetics by studying fruit flies.

I like my students. They are mostly first-years; mostly they want to be biology majors, but others are taking the class for athletic training or sports science majors. Some of them are very smart and some are... well, not doing quite as well in the class. But for a lot of them it's their first real college class and they're learning they can't just study by looking over their notes a couple times the night before the exam (that's a really good way to get a 16 out of 100 on the exam, it turns out.)

It was strange at first having them call me 'professor' and 'Dr.-------' but I guess the "power" must have gotten to me already, because it now seems totally normal.

I don't much like grading. Will was nice enough to help me grade the multiple choice on the exam, but there was still a lot of short answer to read through. And every week I have ~4-5 hours of grading of lab reports to do.

Besides lab and lecture, I'm working on writing a proposal for a new course I want to teach next year and trying to fit in a little time here and there to do research. Oh, and attending the occasional faculty meeting. Luckily, I don't join a lot of committees right away, so my meeting time is rather limited compared to what it could be!

All in all, I like it a lot and it seems like a good choice for me, at least so far. And it's INFINITELY better than grad school!

That's about all I can think of and probably all you want to hear. I promise next time there will be a Claire picture or two... or we won't bother to waste your time!