Groovy Groundhogs

And just like that, the month of January is officially in the books, and we’re a quarter done with the semester. Yikes.
Well, much of the week hasn’t been too out of the ordinary I guess. Y’know, the usual, 25c wings on Tuesday with Daniel (they’re still worth a 45-minute wait), watched the State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, teaching labs, being unproductive here in my apartment while trying to grade hw, nothing too different. The Cloud Physics and Dynamics assignments that were due on Wednesday weren’t too bad actually, which was a pleasant surprise.
Wednesday evening I hung out with some of the PSCG guys, we played some Scattegories at Shane’s place. Ryan and I loved the categories where we had to come up with some sort of geographical location, we’d try to outdo each other by trying to come up with increasingly obscure places for whatever letter was rolled, it was great. 🙂 And for “things in the sky” starting with S, yes, I put “scattering centers.” I’m a nerd, but I’m proud of it.
Tonight I’d started grading some more hw’s, but then I saw my friend Scott online for the first time in forever, it was so good to catch up with him. He’s been in the Navy for the last few years as a helicopter pilot and rescue swimmer, and is getting back into civilian life in April. He sent me some really cool photos from some of the helicopter training missions he’s flown, and a stunning picture from Sumatra a year ago, shortly after the tsunami. I guess his helicopter squadron were the first choppers on the scene in Sumatra, the day after the tsunami hit. The devastation still amazes me. The picture I’ve posted here was taken by Scott on January 8th, 2005, a couple weeks after the tsunami, but this was once the location of a large city. Wow… But on a lighter note, now I’m wondering if I can fit in a quick road trip to visit him in San Diego while I’m in Arizona for spring break in March, hmmmm… 🙂
And today was Groundhog Day! Kerrie, Amber, Caren & David all decided to get up at 2 this morning and drive over to Punxsutawney (about 2 hours west of State College) to see the oversized rodent ascertain whether he saw his shadow or not, so that he could choose the right proclamation about the remaining length of winter. And Punxsutawney Phil apparently saw his shadow this morning (even though it was cloudy), meaning that winter will last another six weeks yet. Though you’d never know we were still in winter from the unseasonably warm weather we’ve been having the last month. But I guess a taste of winter’s coming over the weekend and into next week, it’s not over yet. But anyway, the meteo crew had an absolute blast on their road trip to Punxsutawney, so much fun in fact that I may just have to tag along next year. 🙂 In fact, the main reason I didn’t go this year was because I had to teach a lab at 10am this morning, which wouldn’t have left enough time to get back to State College after Phil’s proclamation. Oh well. At least Kerrie got Daniel & I nice little souvenirs from their morning festivities; she got Daniel one of the plastic top hats that were so abundant in the crowd, and for me she got a quarter stamped with a Punxsutawney and groundhog design. I’d actually suggested that as a souvenir too, so that was cool. 🙂
And apparently Josh doesn’t think I mention him enough on my blog. Well, maybe if he’d do more zany things like become a roadkill chef I’d have cause to mention him more. That, or if he’d halt his unhealthy obsession with his domo-kun. The Japanese are a strange, strange people.