Day 59

 

 This was my bribe to work this afternoon... Thanks, Patrick!  :)

Day 58

 

Pancakes for dinner!  Gotta love those leftovers!  :)

Day 57

Patrick and I crashed on the couch in front of the Olympics (with our laptops) tonight.  I decided some tea would be nice, so I used the tea mix my mom makes and the mug my dad brought me back from a business trip.  Ahhh... Old School.  :)

Day 56

The sunrise this morning was BEAUTIFUL!  I didn't see it until I was already driving, but when I stopped at Lynn's to pick her up, I tried to get a couple of shots through the trees across the street:

 

I also took cupcakes to school today to help celebrate Michelle's birthday (which was Dec. 25).  Considering how long it's been since I made cupcakes, I thought they turned out pretty well!  :)

Day 55

Catherine and I threw the baby shower today.  Look what Candace made to contribute to the decor / gift pile:

Now, I've never seen a diaper cake before today, so I was duly impressed by this creation.  However, even people who have made diaper cakes before were amazed at how great this one turned out.  Good job, Candace, and congratulations to Julia and Scott on their son-to-be!

Day 54

Meet Matt and Cherith. When I took Graph Theory last school year, these two were a huge support system.  We worked on homework together, sat together in class, and just generally went through the whole thing together.  I definitely would not have done as well or understood as much without the two of them (plus, they're great friends to have, too!).  I finally stayed long enough at a Tuesday Tea today to catch Matt when he got out of class, and I convinced these two to pose with me for today's blog. (Many thanks to Shayna, our "Tuesday Tea Lady," for snapping this picture!)

Day 53

Getting ready to help throw a baby shower = blue balloons invading my office. :)

Day 52

Patrick often has to eat in a hurry, and it helps to not have to think about portion size. So, in addition to portioning out Doritos, I also portioned chicken and french fries this weekend.  Here's a peek into our freezer after I did my damage today:

Day 51

Patrick and I went to the OU Club Hockey match tonight with Candace and her daughter.  I always love to watch the Zamboni resurface the ice before play:

Caught a faceoff during the first period:

I couldn't get a good shot of the scoreboard at the end, but OU won 4-2 over the University of Central Oklahoma!  :)

Day 50

I decided that tonight I had to get some things picked up so I could stand to work on school stuff this weekend.  First, I washed some of the dishes that had piled up this week:

 

Of course, after I finished these and another counter's worth (and loaded the dishwasher), Patrick put more dishes in the sink!  Being the good wife that I am (please, keep your laughter to yourself), I still separated the big bag of Doritos into individual bags for him to eat this week:

Day 49

My evening (and a good chunk of tomorrow, too) -- grading Business Calculus tests.

Day 48

Candace, Michelle, and I went on a secret mission today but stopped afterward to pose for the camera.  :)

 

Day 47

When I got to my office this morning, I saw that someone had tagged my office door with a newspaper article:

Upon closer inspection, I realized it was the OU Daily's version of the "Patrick snow" story.  My friend Catherine had displayed it on my door for me and written "WooHoo!" across the top in red ink.  :)  How fun!

Day 46

Caught a beautiful sunrise developing when I got to my office this morning:

Again, I apologize for my dirty (and reflective!) office windows.  I also got a shot of the sunrise over the football stadium:

Day 45

I couldn't share this with you last night, but I can tonight:  Patrick got all 50 states in his Snow Shot of America!  You can read all about how Hawaii miraculously came through (but then had to be verified) and the great people who helped make it happen on Patrick's blog.  NPR also updated their story to reflect the good news.  Patrick has posted a "Thank You!" to all who helped with the process.  You can see that (and updates on the photo compilation) on his blog.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled blog programming.  :)  Patrick may have been busy the past few days, but he still found time to get me a Valentine's Day gift:  SNOW!  :)  Here's the view out our back door for a few lovely minutes this morning:

And then, seriously, within the hour, the snow had vanished from all paved surfaces and was struggling to survive in the grass.  At least it was beautiful and magical for a few minutes!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Day 44

Update on Patrick's celebrity status (as discussed in yesterday's post):

Not long after yesterday's post, Patrick was contacted by NPR and ended up recording an interview with our local NPR affiliate (KGOU, located on campus).  The interview aired on "All Things Considered" yesterday.  You can hear the interview here.  NPR also ran a story, which you can see here.  Today, they posted a new story about yesterday's achievements.  And now for the pictures.  :)  The first one is yesterday's NPR homepage.  (The link to the article about Patrick is below the picture.)

Now, yesterday's actual article:

Then, today's article (complete with declaration of success):

And then a zoom-in of that article so you can see Patrick's name. :)

We also have an updated AP story, a related story about snow (not about Patrick, though), and a link to the AP story on ABC News.  If you want to see photos from yesterday's "Snow Shot", visit Patrick's blog (the Snow Shot of America page).

Day 43

It's just now 8 AM as I write this, and we've already had a busy day!  The Weather Channel was considering doing a "live via Skype" segment with Patrick this morning, and they called around 5:45 AM to confirm it for 7:10 AM!  Back story:  Yesterday, the AP did a story about something Patrick had posted on Twitter.  USA Today picked up the story, which you can find here.  One of our local news stations did a piece about him yesterday on the 10:00 local news, which you can find here.  (This link is to the video of the piece that aired on the news, but you can also link to the text story from this page.)  About 20 minutes after the Weather Channel piece aired this morning, Patrick called to tell me that his story had been linked to the Drudge Report (actual story here).  It's actually the top link on the page!  All of these are related to the fact that it is quite likely that today you will be able to find snow on the ground in all 50 states!  Patrick is hoping to collect at least one picture from each state and compile them (somehow, with fancy technology).  For more information, you can visit Patrick's blog.  :)  Can you say "proud wife?"  Naturally, today's blog is devoted to these events.  (If more come up today, I'll be sure to update this post.)

First, the local channel (News 9).  This is their videos page, and Patrick's piece is linked at the top:

 

If you go to their story, you get this:

Yesterday's USA Today piece looks like this:

This morning's Drudge Report is here:

Followed by me zooming in to show where Patrick's link is the top one in the upper left corner (above the headline!):

And, when you click on this link, it takes you to this story:

(Sorry today's post is so long, but I wanted to document all this excitement!)  :)  If you or someone you know are in a different state and want to contribute a picture between noon and midnight today, you can email them to Patrick at this email address.  Thanks!  Here's hoping we can get all fifty!

Day 42

As I came in from getting the mail today, I noticed how pretty our bush looked with the snow sitting on it.  It reminds me of Christmas!  :)

 

 

Day 41

 

 Getting ready for my normal Wednesday 8 AM phone call with Dr. Murphy via Skype.

Day 40

Every Tuesday afternoon, the Math Department has "Tuesday Tea" for the graduate students.  I've been trying to participate more this semester, so today's picture is from this afternoon's tea.

 

I tried (again) today to like tea, thinking that the inclusion of chocolate in this one might do the trick.  Nope.  Sorry, tea lovers of the world.  Hopefully we can have something else in common.

Day 39

Do not adjust your monitor.  This was the view out my office window today when I realized it was snowing!  :)  Apparently a couple of snowflakes flew by the shot as I snapped it.  Unfortunately, the snow did not stick, but it did look pretty falling!  These other pictures are also office window views, but the snow isn't as visible.

Day 38

The result of yesterday's successful shopping trip:

Day 37

Candace and I have both been meaning to go shopping for a while now, and today we finally made it out and about to do so.  After all the shopping, we stopped at The Cheesecake Factory.  :)  My camera batteries were dead, so you get a cell phone picture of the fabulous Oreo cheesecake we split.  (Sorry for the poor quality, but, man, that cheesecake was great!)

Day 36

Today was such a great Friday!  The sun finally came out, class was canceled, and I got to go to Candace's daughter's birthday party after I finished teaching today!  I forgot how much energy and imagination kids can have!  Here's a shot of Candace and me at the bowling portion of the party.  (Clearly, I didn't take this picture.  Many thanks to Thomas for doing so.)

There was also a really silly video of us dancing to the music playing over the sound system, but I decided the blogosphere wasn't quite ready for that one... :)

Day 35

I bruised my tailbone yesterday by going to an abs class (go figure).  So, today I took this with me to school to make sitting more bearable.  I felt old.

Day 34

My boots!  These have come in SO handy with all the slush, melting, etc. the last few days!  :)  Many thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law for finding these for me at Christmas!

Day 33

 

Each semester I allow myself one TV show to watch during the week as a small break from school.  This semester's selection is The Biggest Loser.  It's just so amazing to watch these people dig deep within themselves and change their lives! (I couldn't get a good shot of the TV during tonight's show, so I opted for the NBC homepage instead.)

Day 32

I love it when good things happen on a Monday.  I especially love it when great things happen that I had forgotten about so they seem like a surprise.  Today was one of those days.  I got to my office this morning and beheld this on my desk:

My fabulous (and very talented) officemate Michelle MADE me a hat!  Isn't that incredible?  It is super-cute, and the weather right now just happens to be perfect for it.  Naturally, I needed Michelle to make a blog appearance today, too, in honor of this awesome piece of knitting.  :)