Monday, February 22, 2010

Snow

It's been pretty warm for winter lately, so when it snowed last weekend, the snow was wet and slushy and very sticky. Beautiful when it stuck to the trees. Here's the view from my deck.
And here's a pretty tree outside the PCAC (my building at school) after an earlier, lighter snow shower.

Sunday, February 21st

It wasn't until I moved to New England that I learned that there's more than one type of bowling. Candlepin bowling uses pins that are closer to cylindrical than "big-ball" bowling, and balls that are slightly larger than softballs. Andy, one of my fellow grad assistants, is really into bowling; he even works at the bowling alley. Unfortunately, it was pretty dark in the bowling alley, so you don't really get the full idea, but this is a picture of him.
And Ron and Casey with some candlepin balls. Or maybe imitating Mickey Mouse...

Saturday, February 20

Hannah makes me laugh, basically on a daily basis. This is when I found her sitting in the hall waiting for her flute lesson to start. It looked like someone had pushed her down and thrown a flute on top of her. The pout-y face is just for effect. :)

Friday, February 19, 2010

Eggs!


Last weekend, I went to a chamber music recital, and at the reception, they served (among other things) eggs. Who cooks eggs for their recital reception? Apparently, the "UNH Chamber Winds." Ben did an "eggscelent" job. :)

Thursday, February 18th

New England Clam Chowder. 'Nuff said.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Steel Drums in the MUB

Our student union is called the Memorial Union Building (MUB, for short), and I often eat lunch in the food court there with the band directors and some of the other graduate students after wind symphony rehearsals. On Wednesdays, they have a series called "WOW: What's On Wednesday." Last week, they had a steel drum band. It's hard to tell from the picture, but they're on the stage against the far wall.

Tuesday, February 16th


My roommate Vanessa got dressed up to go out, and she was so cute that I had to take her picture. Then, of course, she put on her Madeleine hat (as in, from the children's books), so I made her pose again.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Susan, my accompanist for my recital, has been amazing to work with from the beginning. :)

Saturday, February 13

One of the great things about giving a recital is all of the guests that come in from out of town. As Claire said, you could tell that my family wasn't from around here since they looked healthy and tan rather than pale and sickly like the rest of us. :)
Ben, Angela, and Derek

Mom and Dad

Amanda, exhibiting her mad page-turning skills.

Me and Stacy

Me with Dan and Inna

Friday, February 12

Mathieu is a fellow grad student in the music program here, and his wife Fabienne is a doctoral student in another department. Mathieu and I have some good chats, at least in part because we're both significantly older than the other grad students in the department.

Thursday, February 11th

How to describe Gray... Just a generally good guy. Probably the most even-keel and logical person I've ever met. Here, he's exhibiting his mad recording skills as he records my recital. :)

Wednesday, February 10th

Weeks Restaurant. I'm a fan. When my family came into town for my recital, we had Saturday breakfast there. Here you see Ben "assisting" Stacy with the Splenda for her coffee. I'm sure she was grateful. Weren't you, Stace?

Tuesday, February 9th

In the spirit of this blog, Casey showed up at my office door on the Monday after my birthday, bearing gifts that you can only find in New Hampshire: a very tasty bottle of wine (that I did manage to wait to try until I got home), and some "creamed cheddar" which turned out to be very tasty as well, particularly on those little crackers. What a nice surprise for a Monday morning. Thanks Casey!

Monday, February 8th

Although I'd eaten at Chipotle once before I moved to New Hampshire, I didn't realize how often I'd frequent it once I got here. Let's face it, carnitas fajita burrito with corn salsa, cheese, and sour cream? Pure heaven.

Sunday, February 7th

This here is my friend Casey. She's actually a very nice person if you can just get past the fact that she has a horrific skin condition that's unbearable to look at. As you can see here, she's trying, quite successfully, to cover it up. :P

Okay, just kidding. No horrific skin condition. But isn't that a cool Disney scarf? If you look closely, you can see that the pattern is made of Mickey Mouses.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Last year, I assisted Diane with the music theory class that I now teach myself. She lives in Swampscott, Mass. (sounds like a pleasant place, doesn't it? SWAMPscott...) and comes up to UNH to have lunch with Sara and me from time to time.

This picture is from the day before my birthday, so she's displaying the delicious truffles that she brought me as a birthday gift. Mmm... :)

Friday, February 5, 2010

Two words: equine winterwear. Even the horses get cold here. I'm sure that this is a pretty common thing, but I never saw a horse wear a coat until I moved to New Hampshire.

After I took this picture, the horse moseyed over to the fence and posed for me, but by then the batteries on my camera had died...

Thursday, February 4, 2010


Six grad students share our office: Sara, Andy, Brian, Adam, Sean, and me. It's not often that we're all in there. As you can see, it gets pretty crowded. And there isn't anything more to it than what you see here. Teeny room, three giant desks, three giant chairs, and a bookshelf. Good thing we all get along.

Sean thought it'd be a good idea to "rasterbate" this picture and put it on the wall. Here's the result:

Apparently, "rasterbating" is available on some website. You put in your picture, and you get it back, but pixillated. Even though, in this picture, the one on the wall looks pretty complete, it's actually a bunch of dots. The further back you stand, the better the resolution looks. Not easy to do in the office, but we like to try. :)

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Ice Cream in the Snow

Casey and I decided to go to the Dairy Bar for lunch the other day - after it started to snow. And what do you get at the Dairy Bar? Ice cream, of course! Even if it's snowing. Because, in New Hampshire, the winter is too long to go without ice cream.

Oh, the irony...

February 2, 2010

The UNH marching band is something else that makes me happy, but since they only meet during the Fall semester, I couldn't get a picture of them. Instead, here's a picture of the bag of truffles that they got me as an end-of-season gift. (And that I received on the first day of the Spring semester since I wasn't at the band banquet.)

Mmm... truffles...

February 1, 2010

Claire is my non-musical friend from the Graduate Student Organization. Some people go to graduate school with an assistantship. Claire has a fellowship from NASA. Maybe if I hang around her enough, some of her brain power will rub off...