Monday, November 14, 2011

Light the Night 2011

We participated in The Light the Night Walk again this year to raise funds in support of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This year, thanks to everyone's very generous donations, we raised $1350!!
 I had a great team to walk with this year...Travis, Diego, Laura and Ben all helped raise money and walked with me.  As usual, they had great food (the ice cream is the best!!) and activities before the walk and.....
an awesome fireworks show!! Five years ago, my mom lost her battle with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and this was a great way to honor her and everyone else who is or has battled any type of blood cancer.  Let's hope that one day, we will be able to celebrate the end of this disease!!

Halloween 2011

In honor of my trip to Oktoberfest last year in Munich, I decided to dress as a Bavarian bar maid for Halloween this year!
 The weather was less than perfect for going out, but I had just spent 10 days in the DR and I was excited to wear my costume!!
 I met up with Ben and Paul to head over to a friend's party.  Can you guess what they are??
 Here's Andrew, Dan, Lyza, me and Sylvia..
 I think that Jenn and Remy had the best costumes of the night...a jellyfish and a lantern fish!!
 Here's Jenn after we discovered the glow sticks!!
Lots of fun regardless of the weather!!!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

It's all about The U

I finally made it to a UM Football game- I had forgotten how much fun college football is!!  My friend, Peter, had an extra ticket to the UM vs. Ohio State game, so I got to watch the Hurricanes beat 17th ranked Ohio State 24 to 6!  I realize that it's possible that my allegiance should go to Ohio State since I was born in Ohio and all, but I figured that since UM pays my paycheck right now I should show them some support!

(All photos courtesy of Heather Gilbert)
Ian and I show off our teamwork skills

 The game was a lot of fun and the experience of it was amazing!  They play at Dolphin Stadium and it was packed!  Lots of good UM energy!

It's all about the "U"!!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

My new home....again!

As much as I say that I hate to move, I've done it again!!  I moved into a 1 bedroom/1.5 bath apartment on beautiful Key Biscayne.  It's on the penthouse floor (actually it's on the 3rd floor of a three story building) and my screened in porch has a wonderful view of the pool.  The best part is that I'm only 1 block from the beach where I have private access!!
Here's some pictures:

Living Room

Living room

Dining Area

Kitchen- small but functional

Guest Bath

My bath

Bedroom

Bedroom

Screened balcony

Labor Day 2011


I headed to one of my favorite vacation spots, Chateaux Brown-Hansen, for Labor Day weekend!  Always the gracious hosts, Claus and Michelle helped satisfy my craving for steak by joining me in a feast of Filets with a mushroom Madeira sauce, thyme potatoes and a spinach, beet and goat cheese salad finished off with a lovely Coppola pinot noir......one of the best meals I've ever had!!
Thanks for the great weekend!!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Crazy month of July!

It's been super busy over the past month!  Field work is really picking up for the summer and now that I'm back to diving, I'm spending quite a bit of time in the water.  The nurseries are doing well and we hope that the corals in our one nursery may actually spawn this year.  We are allowing our newest nursery to grow over the summer (pending they survive any storms that come our way this year) and then will put most of those corals out on the reefs during our restoration activities this fall.  I've also been helping out with seagrass monitoring (not my favorite....), but the weather has been pretty rough this year so far and it's nice to help out others every once in a while!
The biggest news is that I moved out to Key Biscayne!  I've got a one bedroom apartment half a block from the beach (the main reason I moved there) and it's also close to work.  I'll be able to ride my beach cruiser into work sometime soon!  The moved went well thanks to everyone who came to help!  I'm still working on unpacking everything and figuring out where stuff should go.  I'll post pictures of the new place as soon as I can get the rooms looking presentable! 
Trouble is adjusting to her new place and likes the fact that she's always within one or two rooms of me now (as opposed to one to two floors away in the other place!).

Lobster!

First lobster dinner of the season!

Rolo and I braved the craziness of mini-season and went lobster hunting under the bridge at Bear Cut.  Mini-season is 48 hours where recreational divers can go and catch lobsters prior to the open of the commercial season.  Every year, a bunch of crazy people go out in search of the first lobsters of the season.  Rolo and I landed 8 lobsters in one dive!  They were deliciously prepared on the grill with butter, lime juice, garlic and cayenne pepper.  Served with fresh grilled corn and asparagus!