So what's everyone up to this spring?  New projects, old projects, just enjoying the season, or still shoveling your way out of the drive way?   ;)

This season I'm hoping to get back to biking and walking as much as possible.  I've also got a TON of projects I want to start, but I'm trying to just keep caught up on everything that has been done before jumping into anything else too time consuming.  

Phew... A book I've been working with is coming out in early May. I'm hoping to finish my Master's thesis soon and hopefully graduate soon after. Not to forget that I'm trying to start a research project with my friend. That would take care of my employment for a while.  :) And of course, I'm still a project coordinator in an animal welfare project, I hope to get some funding for my work so I could work full-time in the project for summer and actually get certain things that need badly doing, done.

I'm also enjoying quiet moments at home, waiting for first morel hunt in a nearby forest and growth of my hair.
I guess I could say that whatever my life is, it's not boring!

galadriel: with master thesis do you mean this final work you have to write for getting your license or the very huge one to become doctor? if it's the former: i did that in the summer (science is unpredictable sometimes and i was stuck waiting for some data and too lazy). i wanted to do a doctorat but finally decided it was so not worth the trouble (boring!).
i hope to start a new painting soon (slowed down by photolab). ugh, the weather's crap and don't seem to be improving soon. it's april for crying out loud!!!  >:(

Well, let's see...working, of course (why couldn't i have been born independently wealthy??).  I can start walking outside instead of indoors on the treadmill.  Declaring bankruptcy (again, why couldn't i have been born independently wealthy?) and starting all over again.  *sigh*  

Springtime is meeting time, so I"ll be spending the next few weeks trying to keep awake.  :P  It's also time to get my outdoor funiture out of storage so I can have my weekend breakfasts on the porch again!  

*is puzzled* My master's thesis is the final thing I need before I graduate to MA (???).  It's 60-80 pages work...consisting in my case of reading a very large pile of books and thinking hard on top of that. Quite long enough for me 8) Though I'm planning to go for Doctor's degree after this.

Spring is usually slow here in MN but this year it came in with a bang and is hanging around!  (Watch - now it will snow again :-/ )  

I've pulled my bike off the trainer and have started doing weekend and afternoon rides.  Keep hoping for morning temps to improve so I can ride to work.  I'm such a wimp - I don't like to ride when the temps are below 40F.

Hubby is looking for hunting land, so we are making many trips north to look at land.  Tromping through wet, soggy swamps and woods - whoo hoo!  On the up side, I get lots of knitting done in the car.  ;)

I'm busy knitting socks for the Russian orphans.  Hope to have a dozen done soon to ship off.

Oh yes, and work.  At least the tax season is over for me and we can return to a more normal workload.

wrote on Apr 14^th, 2005 at 4:29am:

*is puzzled* My master's thesis is the final thing I need before I graduate to MA (???).  It's 60-80 pages work...consisting in my case of reading a very large pile of books and thinking hard on top of that. Quite long enough for me 8) Though I'm planning to go for Doctor's degree after this.

ooh, so it's just the "little" one! i think wrote mine in about three weeks (i have even the impression my promotors kept the thing longer to correct it than me writing it. of course prior to that i bored myself from november until may in a lab (i had not a lot of reading to do thank god! there was just not a lot written about it and besides the few papers i found never worked for me in the lab, the liars!)

This spring I'm anxiously awaiting the chance to sign up for intermediate guitar lessons at the Mesa Arts Center.  Its a brand new building-very cool as it is purple and there will be specific rooms for music so we won't have to share with the other art classes ;D

I'm rededicating myself to bellydancing, this winter I've hardly danced at all-it sure was a rough one.

I hope to start hiking these mountains with hubby on Saturdays.

Usually in spring and summer I start planning trips to Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health- some for personal growth and some for yoga teacher enhancement.  Eventually I hope to have 500 hours YTT accumulated at Kripalu.

More singing, of course, maybe this fall I'll feel confident enough to get into a community choir or audition for community theatre.

Oh yeah, I plan on eating like a French woman.  Any pointers, Styg?

BB-I hope it doesn't snow for you.  Perhaps you could head it off with a rain dance?

work :-/
Boy Scout stuff :D
work :-/
Church stuff ;D
work :-/
wish I were gardening :(
work :-/
ignore dust bears under beds, on floors :-X :-[
work :-/
check up on parents :)
work :-/
take care of old dog :'(
............

Boy Scout stuff??  My son was a Eagle Scout.  Hubby and I were very active with his troup.  In many ways, I miss the scouting.  I could always plan on one weekend a month to have the house to myself while they went camping.  I liked interacting with the boys.  <sigh>  I'm getting OLD!

*envies styg* I've been working with this for a year...not full-time of course since there's all this other stuff. And people call my progress quite fast. At this point, I envy everyone who gets to conduct some empirical experiments. I just sit in front of my computer with a book and think until my brain begins to smoke.  

wrote on Apr 14^th, 2005 at 9:48pm:

Oh yeah, I plan on eating like a French woman.  Any pointers, Styg?

uh? i dunno. i don't think either french people are especially thin if that's what your aiming for.

"dust bears" <----;D ;D cute choice of words

Hm... I look forward to relaxing, painting, crafting, Mooncupping ;D ;D ;D ;D, wearing long flowy skirts, socializing, traveling, going to the lake to paint and do nothing, watching movies, doing nothing, and doing nothing.

Three more weeks!

Anais

wrote on Apr 15^th, 2005 at 5:24am:

*envies styg* I've been working with this for a year...not full-time of course since there's all this other stuff. And people call my progress quite fast. At this point, I envy everyone who gets to conduct some empirical experiments. I just sit in front of my computer with a book and think until my brain begins to smoke.

oh, forgot to tell you, both my bf and his friend (who's living close by so i am surrounded!!) are philosophers who started their doctorat thesis like ten years ago. my bf lost interest in ending it, especially since the whole academic world just makes him puke.i dunno if his friend will finish hers but i doubt it, she was to happy quiting her job "trying to teach philosophy to uniterested dumb highschool kids on weed".

wrote on Apr 15^th, 2005 at 4:52pm:

uh? i dunno. i don't think either french people are especially thin if that's what your aiming for.

Well, it's a bit of a joke.  You see, I bought this book, "French Women Don't Get Fat" by Mireille Guiliano and thought since you're living in France you'd have a tip or two.  The book is a fun read and has yummy sounding recipes in it.

I think it's funny you don't find French people especially thin.  What's thin, anyway?  Right?

well, i am kind of an underweight myself so i have troubles finding people really thin easily. anyhow, i thinlk on top of that it depends on the region. i am sure you'll find tons of skinny people in paris like you'd find them in new york too. but some regions have incredibly greasy food where everything seems to come with tons of cream. think la Normandie, la Lorraine. where i live (Loire-Atlantique, next to the ocean) everything is pretty light, way lighter than flemish food (which comes with tons of creamy sauces as well). it's so light here that i was constantly hungry in the beginning by lack of grease!

wrote on Apr 14^th, 2005 at 11:44pm:

Boy Scout stuff??  My son was a Eagle Scout.  Hubby and I were very active with his troup.  In many ways, I miss the scouting.  I could always plan on one weekend a month to have the house to myself while they went camping.  I liked interacting with the boys.  <sigh>  I'm getting OLD!

My oldest is an Eagle Scout.  My middle did the teenage revolt and refused to finish  :-/ .  My youngest is the only one in scouts now.
Wish my hubby would camp with him -- I'd love to have the weekend alone.  I am the one to go camping.  Like this weekend.  Funny stories being nearly the only, or the only female in camp.  But the guys, men and boys, are really great.

wrote on Apr 18^th, 2005 at 12:29am:

My oldest is an Eagle Scout.  My middle did the teenage revolt and refused to finish  :-/ .  My youngest is the only one in scouts now. Wish my hubby would camp with him -- I'd love to have the weekend alone.  I am the one to go camping.  Like this weekend.  Funny stories being nearly the only, or the only female in camp.  But the guys, men and boys, are really great.

My dad got a lot of weekends home alone when my mom was camping with girl scouts.  I didn't finish my gold award which still irritates my mother.  But she still trains girl scout leaders and is fairly active with out local counsel so I think it worked out.  

wrote on Apr 18^th, 2005 at 12:29am:

Wish my hubby would camp with him -- I'd love to have the weekend alone.  I am the one to go camping.  Like this weekend.  Funny stories being nearly the only, or the only female in camp.  But the guys, men and boys, are really great.

I did the fall campouts and 1 winter campout when a lot of the men would be busy with hunting season.  Yep, I would be the only female.  I even did one summer camp for 2 weeks - THAT was interesting.  Our troup was totally scout run, so as an adult, my responsibilities were to keep the kids from killing themselves, and driving them somewhere if necessary.  The boys would plan, organize, shop, setup, cook and clean up.  Eating their food was a challenge at times, but some of them turned out to be pretty decent cooks over an open fire.  I loved it when it was lazagne night!  Cakes and pies baked in box ovens were good too.  Pizza over an open fire is a challenge I could live without :P  The great part was watching them turn from little boys, to responsible adults, with the older boys taking care of and teaching the younger ones.  Certainly a proud moment as a parent that I'm glad I didn't miss.

Valerie
Quote:

I didn't finish my gold award which still irritates my mother.

It is hard allowing your kids to make their own decisions, especially when you think they could make better choices.  Life is scary. That "letting go" thing is tough.  I'd rather my kids force the issue, sometimes, if the alternative is for them to be tied too tightly to the apron strings.  Growing up is hard on kids and parents -- but I'm beginning to reap the benefits now, with wonderful adult sons, Eagle Scout or not. ;D

Bikerbraid
Quote:

I even did one summer camp for 2 weeks - THAT was interesting.

:o I did it for one week -- my hat's off to you for surviving 2!

Bikerbraid
Quote:

The great part was watching them turn from little boys, to responsible adults, with the older boys taking care of and teaching the younger ones.  Certainly a proud moment as a parent that I'm glad I didn't miss.

 ;D I agree! And somehow they do it in spite of us ;)

Breaking in new dog, running, breaking in new dog, running, BiND, running, BND, running .... I detect a theme here

Oh yea, finally doing a loooooong overdue spring cleaning too ...g

wrote on Apr 17^th, 2005 at 4:18pm:

think la Normandie, la Lorraine. where i live (Loire-Atlantique, next to the ocean) everything is pretty light, way lighter than flemish food (which comes with tons of creamy sauces as well). it's so light here that i was constantly hungry in the beginning by lack of grease!

Bye the ocean?!  *whimpers*  You're so lucky!  

*dreams to live by the ocean*

I live in the South, where just about everything is deep fried and covered in gravy!   :-X

I like my fried chicken, thank you very much, but a gal's gotta draw the line SOMEWHERE...

I never finished my Gold Award either. The whole of it was supposed to be a Save the Whales mural in our local park.