As promised...

Here we go. Pictures from:

3.2 for 32. This event was a memorial run for those who lost their lives in the April 16th 2007 shooting. I ran it with my friend Mona. We showed up at around 7:30am to register and each runner was given a balloon. The race started with a moment of silence and the release of 32 white balloons. Then the runners (and walkers) released their balloons and we were off. I heard they approximated 8000+ people at the run. I don't know if you have ever looked up to see 8000 balloons in the sky but it is quite a site. Also, I don't know if you have ever run 3.2 miles with 7999 other people, but its crowded.

Here was a professional picture of a whole lot of Hokies taken after the run. Mona and I are in there somewhere.

Later that day, I went to the Chateau Morrisette with some fellow food scientists. We went as a reward for participating in one of our colleagues research projects, which was to test some sensory characteristics of blackberry wine. We each put in a few hours of training for the research, so to reward us Research Conducter Robert set up this pretty cool event. We did a tradiational tasting, and then we were invited to the back of the winery for tastings of the wines that were still fermenting in tanks. If anyone is interested in going to a winery next time you are here visiting, this would be a cool spot.

Here we are at Chateau Morrisette, lovingly referred to as "the chat" (chat? shat? not sure how to spell that).

Behind the scenes: Barrels of wine.

Pulling samples from the tanks

The packaging operation! (nerd alert)

Here I am with my homies: Me, Anibal, and Mona in front of The Chat

All the while, Ian had a fever. Finally on Sunday he got better and we went to Pandapas Pond to get some fresh air. Ian was encouraging Neit to put his paws in the water. It took some coaxing but once he got in, he went full force towards these Canadian geese. It caught Ian off gaurd and he let go of the leash. Neit came "THIS CLOSE" to catching one of those geese when we convinced him to come back to us. It was entertaining, to say the least.

Neit and Ian, post-goose chase.

We are leaving tomorrow morning for Richmond to see Tim and Janet and their new baby. Judy and John will be there too. Maybe even Grammy? So that is what you have to look forward to next time!

New post preview

Wow, April 21st already, and only one post this month. As you may have gathered, things have been picking up for me at school. I am busy every day of the week. We managed to pack quite a few things into last weekend's schedule. Ian had a fever of 101.5F on Friday and had to miss work. I ran a memorial run (3.2 for 32) for the 32 hokies that didn't make it on April 16, 2007. I went to a winery and did a behind the scenes tour with a bunch of food science grad students. Ian recovered from his illness. Neit jumped into a pond and almost caught a canadian goose. I have pictures for all of this. Now, give me a little more time, and I'll get them up here! Hope everyone is doing well. We miss you guys!

Happy Campers

Due to the unseasonably good weather we have been having lately, Ian was dead set on camping last weekend. I finally gave in, and we drove out to Pembroke, VA for some overnight camping in Jefferson National Forest. We decided to camp at a site we have hiked through before, and so we filled our packs with the essentials (food, tent, sleeping bags) and headed out. We hiked about 5 miles in, stayed overnight, and added another 6 or 7 miles out to finish the loop back to our car. Here's a map we found in a book ...

We were only about a half mile away from West Virginia at some points.

When we started our hike, we were greeted with this...Campers, Ye be warned!


Here are the happy campers, each carrying their own pack (even Neit)

We got our tent up and fire started before the sun went down.

The creek that ran right next to our tent. We heard a lot of critters scurrying by outside throughout the night.

Don't worry. Neit was quite the guard dog. Here he is, guard doggin' it.

Passing the time with some bird watching. There weren't really a whole lot of birds out. I guess the summer migrators haven't made their way here yet.

Ian said he "likes to get away from everything sometimes". This was a good place to do so.