The Weather Outside is Frightful

Last weekend Mom and Dad came up for their first visit--Dad was brave and drove all 13 hours from Raleigh, NC (in one go) to bring up a car-load of my stuff from home. This was mostly composed of books, CDs, Seth's chair and stool, and six gigantic plants Mom and Dad took care of for two years while we were abroad (one of the plants, a spider, Seth has had for about 11 years!!). While my parents were here we ran a few errands (Costco and Ikea, wooo!), walked up to the summit of Prospect Hill, and drove out to Lexington and Concord. We unfortunately had to save going to downtown Boston for a longer visit.

The morning they left was the first snow of the season--it was pretty light and didn't stick around for too long, but it was just enough to make everything look white and pretty. The next day, however, the weather dropped, and Seth and I went for a run while the temperature was about 8 degrees (Fahrenheit)--we had to wear ski masks to keep our faces from freezing off! Two days later the sky clouded up and the morning low was in the mid 50s! After that was two days of steady rain with lots of ice and power outages further west. I think it is supposed to get really cold again tomorrow... ergh...

On a different topic, today (well, I guess yesterday) was my official graduation ceremony at The ANU. Although I submitted my thesis in May and it was accepted in early July, I didn't quite make the deadline for the Winter graduation. It doesn't really matter to me, just as long as I didn't have to pay tuition those past few months! Even though it is exciting to officially have my degree, I am reminded of how long it has been since finishing my thesis, and I still have not written any papers for publishing! Shameful! :o(

Here are a few pictures from the past couple weeks:

Thanksgiving dinner at Seth's uncle's house near Cape Cod. This doubled as a small birthday party for three of the kids.

Seth and Princess Adah helping Gina with the cranberries

Mom and Dad on Lexington's Battle Green (the first battle of the American Revolution was fought here)

Busy and bustling Concord

OK, time to work on those papers now!