It's begining to look a lot like Christmas in Hokieville

Its been all holiday themed festivities for the past week. Last weekend was Ian's work party, which was themed Casino Night. On Thursday we had the food science Holiday lunch. Friday we had our friends get together for a game night. The weather has been very cold, with even some snow but mostly frozen rain. Every one seems like they are in the holiday cheer frame of mind. Especially me, and I have pretty much mentally checked-out at work. Thats okay because I have reached all of my mile stones for the semester. We have another Christmas party at Ian's friends house this coming Friday, and a potluck dinner at my friend's house on Saturday. Ohhh...and then we get to come home. Yay!! Would you like to see some pictures???

The only picture I took at Ian's Christmas party. Isn't he lovely?

The morning after the Christmas party. Ian may have been in a little bit of pain.

This is where Ian's work party was held. We woke up the next morning to look out of our window and see this.

After the snow, we got some ice. Disastrous driving conditions, but very pretty!

Lots of ice on the trees.

We were thinking about getting a Christmas tree. We haven't gotten one yet. I got impatient so I just made my own fireplace with stockings to make it feel a little more Christmasy. Happy holidays! See you soon.

Gone caving

This weekend we decided to do something a little different. We drove to Luray, Va and checked out one of their main attractions, the Luray Caverns. I haven't been to a cave since we went to Mammoth Caves, like 20 years ago. It was a lot of fun. I wish I could show you how awesome it was via pictures, but the cave environment is not exactly ideal for capturing memories. I did get a few good ones, which I'll share now.

In the cave. Sure is dark!

Ian checking the place out.

Not a crazy cave floor, but a perfect reflection in a cave lake. Very impressive.

Here is a dramatic colum made of stalagtites and stalagmites connected.

Peeking inside the "stalagmite curtains"

Karleigh in a cave.

A "veil" in the cave.

Cave lake turned into a wish well. Pennies turn the water green.

And a garden maze outside of the cave.

Also, I made a six pack caddy for Sabrina's birthday. I think she liked it. It turned out pretty cool, although I am not sure it is very practical.

Well, we are excited to see everyone for Thanksgiving. See you in a day or two!

Recreation at Rocky Knob

Hey family and friends. Last May I bought Ian an awesome book detailing hiking trails off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Well it has been sitting around, collecting dust, until this weekend. I found a 3.1 miles loop that turned out to be pretty awesome. It was about an hour drive from our place, and about a 2.5 hour hike. I think if anyone visits in nice weather, we will probably take you here. Have a look.

Rocky Knob is right off of the Blue Ridge Parkway

Along the trail were the remnants of an old house or something.

We had to blaze up this extremely steep old logging road. So it doesn't look so steep here...but it was.

After a little confusion with where exactly the trail split, we eventually got to this ladder over a fence into a cow pasture. The trail continued on the other side of the pasture.

Neit had no problems with the ladder...

And then frolicked in the field until we got him back on the leash.

We had to watch our step...cow plop.

And once again got confused as to which blazed trail to follow back. Here is Ian consulting our book.

Some nice views before we got back to the beginning of the trail.

Here is Ian.

Pretty cool find huh? Maybe we can take you here next time.

Party time. Excellent.

Halloween party at our house! Ian made some potent punch, and we got some dry ice to make it look spooky. The punch pretty much made the party. Because everyone drank it. And we had fun. This was our first attempt at mixing social circles, as Ian invited his friends from work and I invited mine. It worked out pretty well. Pictures tell a thousand stories, or something, so here you go...

Your excellent hosts

Bill Cosby. He ate all the pudding pops.

Nick and Mona as B.B. Wolf and lil' R.R. Hood.

Sabrina and Jerry as Axel and Slash

Mitch and Heather as P. Imp and T. Fairy

Marnie and Fred as 80's Prom and Zombie bicycle enthusiast

New friends Becky and Heath as Cat and Star Wars guy

Dan and friends. Note repeat pimp costume. How embarrassing.

The canines.

Ian was sober enough to figure out how to use the timer on my camera. Group shot. How adorable.

And here Neit personafies how we felt the next day. All tuckered out.

Good Halloween. Unfortunately, no trick or treaters. But hey, maybe next year.

Water falls and beer

The last two weeks have been busy. Things are picking up for me at school. Things are picking up for Ian at work. We really look forward to the weekends these days. Over the past two weeks we have had a lot of fun in the area. One of our local favorite hiking spots, the Cascades, has been calling our name. Unfortunately, my low blood sugars have ruined the past two attempts we have made. So third time is a charm. We packed up an entire bottle of glucose tabs, a couple of juice boxes, and this time we finally made it to the falls.

Attempt at hiking a few weeks ago. Blood sugar crashed, not enough juice boxes. Had to turn around. Tried again the next week.

The next attempt. Ian gets annoyed when I take pictures of him. See.

Look. A mini waterfall. How cute.

Ian at the big waterfall. How cute.

There I am.

This weekend we entertained ourselves with a beer festival. We went with a few of Ian's work friends. Its hard not to have fun when a lot of beer is involved. Enjoy some pictures.

When Ian drinks he gets less annoyed at people taking pictures of him.

Creigh Deeds was there. He is running for governor. Ian was impressed.

Here we are. Drinking beer. Pretty similar to the last beer fest we went to. Only less cool cause the family wasn't there. You guys should come next time, ok?

Viva!

So. Vegas. I had a good time. But wow. Its expensive. And sleazy. And flashy. And fake. What was I doing there you ask? Well, I was in Las Vegas for this years annual Pack Expo to receive my award for the Italian Packaging Technology Award competition (you know, the Italy trip). The Italian Trade Commision had a little extra money in their budget, so they flew us award winners to Vegas and put us up in a hotel for a few days, and paid our way into the Expo. Pretty cool. The thing about Vegas is, its expensive. And when you are a poor grad student, its hard to justify buying a 20 dollar sandwich and an 8 dollar beer. After one day of just walking around, sight seeing, not gambling, and not seeing any shows, we decided maybe we need to spend a little money to make if feel more like the Vegas experience. After we went to Pack Expo, we found a message on our hotel phones saying we could get Cirque de Soliel tickets, 2 for 1. And...the cheapest tickets were 80 dollars (divided by two for the 2 for 1 deal, only 40 bucks a person, hey not bad). So I splurged and bought a ticket. I am so happy that I did. It was really cool. Afterwards I spent the rest of my money on drinks out on the strip (not that I bought a ton of drinks, I bought a couple of drinks for really expensive), saw the flashing lights and water shows and volcano eruptions, and said "Thank you Vegas but I think I have had enough". So, that pretty much sums it all up.

My room at Treasure Island. Thanks to the Italian Trade Commision once again.

My room was on the 32nd (out of 36) floors. Here's the view.

At Pack Expo. This motorcycle is made completely out of corrugated board.

Here's a close up. Impressive.

And now..the sights...
Ceiling of blown glass at the Bellagio, I think?

The Bellagio's Autumn themed botanical garden.

Since we all got to know each other in Italy, and had not interacted anywhere else before Vegas, we got a kick out of the Venetian.
The Venetian, fake Rialto.

Venice, Italy. Real Rialto.

The Venetian, Las Vegas. Fake San Marco's square.

Venice, Italy. Real San Marco's square.

So Vegas was pretty close to the real thing, but we knew where we really were.
Anyway, back to Vegas...

Volcanic explosions every half hour!

Kathleen, Erin and JD sight seeing.

Cirque de Soliel, Mystere

Last scene of Mystere. I know my camera could never capture it, but it was an amazing show. You can see a two minute clip of some of the shows highlights here...
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/mystere/default.aspx
(click on "view trailer")

After the show we walked down here, to the Eiffel tower. There was a restaurant at the top where we got these drinks...

and watched the Bellagio water shows from the bar. I would recommend it.

So Vegas was fun. But now I'm poor.