Merry Christmas!

For those of you who's address I don't have, here is the pic from me and Brian's 2010 Christmas Card. Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Trip to Texas

Yummy Rio Red Grapefruit

Packing House

Fresh Oranges...if only these pictures were scented...mmmm

Diseased Orange

Citrus Nursery

Newly pruned nursery trees, getting ready for next year.

This week I was in TX for a meeting and tours of the fruit facilities there. The tours were fantastic! The citrus packing house made me feel like an episode of Mr. Rogers when they use to do "how did they do that" clips on how things are made. Its amazing what machines can do and how much more efficient technology has made us. Not to mention that the whole building smelled FANTASTIC! Like a freshly cut orange! We also ate some great Tex-Mex food while we were there. I had some yellow corn patties with ground sirloin and pico on top, Yum!

Visit from Brian's Dad and Grandma

Last week Brian's dad and grandma drove down for a few days from Indiana. We had a great trip and packed in all sorts of fun stuff during their visit. We drove down to the beach for the day which luckily was warm and sunny. We ended the day with some yummy Wendy's and did you guys know they now have multiple Frosty flavors!!! Awesome!! The next day we drove down to Raeford to see my family, eat dad's to die for BBQ ribs and take the family out to the turkey/pig/cow/horse farm. Good Times!

Night Photography

Downtown Raleigh from the Boylan Street Bridge.


Field beside the NC Art Museum. And that is actually the moon, not the sun. Crazy how bright it is when it is a full moon!


This week was my last photography class and one of our last assignments was to do some night photography. So last weekend Brian was nice enough to take me out to take some pictures late at night. I was really glad to have some muscle with me because we were standing on the Boylan Street Bridge part of the time and lets just say there were some interesting people roaming around. We ended the night watching the state fair fireworks from the Art Museum. I had envisioned this lovely romatic evening sitting on a picnic blanket watching the fireworks, but by 10:00 it was FREEZING and neither of us could stand to be out of the car, so we watched them from inside the car with the heat on. Not quite as romantic, but at least we didn't get frostbite.

Raleigh Greenway

This past weekend Brian and I went bike riding on a greenway near our house. Its really close and we didn't even know it was there until about two weeks ago! We had a great time bike riding and seeing all the great scenery along the greenway. Hopefully we will be able to do it more often. I love exercise that is also fun!! Plus I look super hot in a walmart bike helmet LOL!Let me know if you want to join us!! Brian has a hitch that goes on his jeep that would probably hold 3 or 4 bikes. If you haven't ridden your bike since high school (like us) you will probably need to go to walmart and get some new tubes for your tires because they will be dry rot. I'm sure Brian would lend out his tire replacement services if you need help =)

Richmond, VA

This past week I was in Richmond Virginia to give a presentation at a workshop. We stayed downtown and ate at some great restaurants! The first was a place called The hard shell and we just happened to be there on monday night which is their lobster special night. Everyone in the group had a different type of lobster dish and they were all amazing!! Another place we went to was called Comfort. It was a modern spin on southern cuisine. It was so good that there was actually moaning at the table!! On Wednesday night Brian drove up and surprised me which was awesome! The next day after the meeting was over we walked down to the river walk and through downtown. Richmond has such a rich history! I wish we could have stayed longer.

Mordecai

Yummy Starbucks Pumpkin Latte!



Last weekend Brian and I went to Mordecai to take some pictures. It was a pretty cool place! We got to see Andrew Johnsons's birthplace and lots of cool old buildings. They also have trolley rides that leave from here and go through downtown Raleigh.

Abby dog

My sweet Abby dog has to have eye surgery on friday to remove a cyst. I'm hoping all will go well. This pic is of her playing ball on the beach. She would rather play ball than do just about anything on the planet!!

New Hair

So what do you think of my new do? I LOVE it, especially since it took me about 4 minutes to blow dry it this morning!!

Tucson, AZ

Last week I was in Tucson Arizona for a lab inspection and was totally surprised at how awesome a place it is!! The city was really fun with a great strip of restaurants going through one side of the University. The Sonoran desert was also a huge surprise. I hadn't expected it to be soooo beautiful!! Its surrounded on three sides by bright red mountains and the cacti are huge!! We did encounter a rattle snake (and yes I freaked out) but he was a gentleman, warning us he was there, then getting out of the way. You must put Tucson on your places to go list!!!

beach pics

Catherine after her surf lesson!

Anniversary

Figure Eight Sunset

Brian and I celebrated our second anniversary at the beach this past weekend. The weather was perfect and the water was still warm enough for a swim. Brian was sweet enough to take me out on the boat at sunset to take some photos. I kept getting blur from the boat moving so he had to cut the engine which means we got eaten alive by the no-see-ems! But my sweetie endured it so I could get some great shots of the sun setting. Later we went up to the club and had our free desert that I had won during bingo a few weeks ago! (Oh yes, I am a bingo champion, I think I had forgot to put that on here). We both had vanilla creme brulee and it was delicious!!

Beach Pic's

Sexy husband after his surf lesson!

LOTS of Traveling!!

Its been pretty crazy around here lately but hopefully I won't be leaving home again anytime soon. In the last month I've been to meetings in California, Charlotte and Kansas. Then amidst all that we went on vacation in West Virginia. I sure was happy when that plane landed last night in RALEIGH!! I love traveling to new places but I also like breaks in between the trips which hasn't been the case this time. Brian was so sweet last night! He came to pick me up at the airport and brought me flowers! Awww, my heart melts.

Sooo... I guess I should give a brief recap of the places I've been.

1st - California
I flew into San Francisco then drove up to San Rafael where we have a quarantine nursery set up. San Rafael is BEAUTIFUL!!! The weather was perfect the whole time, I even had to put on a sweater in the evenings. I got to go out to China Camp which is a state park that had one of the first P. ramorum detections. It was beautiful and right along the bay. We also had a little free time before our flight on the last day so we went to the golden gate bridge and hiked down to the beach below it which was a blast!

2nd - West Virginia
We went on vacation to West Virginia and went white water rafting on the New River. We had a blast with Brian and my family there. We went hiking along some great trails and some of the group went on a zip line course which they thought was awesome. Me and mom opted for a massage instead. The massage studio was inside a pagota out in the woods. The very tip of the pagoda roof was open with a big wooden fan in the opening. It was awesome because you were just laying there looking up into the trees tops and you could hear the birds and all the forest noises. Soooo relaxing!!

3rd - Charlotte
The next week I was in Charlotte for the American Phytopathological Meeting. There were some great workshops and we at at a fantastic restaurant downtown called Aria. It was Tuscan and one of the best places I've eaten in a very long time! I liked it so much that the next day I managed to drag one of my coworkers back there again for lunch! I was amazed how much downtown Charlotte has changed since I had been there last. There are plazas everywhere to hang out in, lots of good restaurants, hotels, museums, etc. It would be a great quick getaway! Thanks to conference rates we were able to stay at the Westin which was not too shabby!! I was hoping to get to go to Ikea while I was there but it didn't work out. Thats probably for the best because I sort of go crazy in that place!!! How can you not when everything is soooo cute and sooo cheap!!!

4th - Manhattan, Kansas
This week I was in Kansas at a workshop on Phytophthora ramorum. I had to give a presentation which I was super nervous about but I think it went really well in the end. Manhattan is the home of the Kansas State Wildcats and they really take that to heart! I had to stop at Walmart to get some snacks and I think I was the only individual not wearing a purple (wildcats) shirt!! Manhattan has their own aiport which was pretty hilarious. They have 3 flights a day and they all go to Dallas. You had to be at the airport 45 minutes early or the ticket counter would be closed because the ticket agent is also the baggage lady!! LOL

San Francisco

San Francisco

WV Fam Vacation

WV Fam Vacation

Days like this are why I love the beach and the summer!! Why does it go by so fast???

4th of July

Not everyone is a fan of fireworks!!

The Exciting World of Plant Pathology

For all of you who wonder what a crazy plant person does all day... here's a recap of my day so far.


1) My day started with 33 unread emails. Who sends emails between 5:00 friday evening and 8:00 monday morning?? Really!!

2) The first few emails were about a study I'm helping coordinate in another state. Our diseased plants have apparently been cured (this was not the intent of the study) which means we need more diseased plants to continue the study but don't have information as to where more diseased plants are right now. So I'm contacting people, trying to find some...somewhere....anywhere.....no luck. For five points anyone know what diseased plant this is?



3) Now a bunch of emails about a Nursery assessment I went on a few weeks ago...when is the document going to be released to the public? Well I'm only through with one of the 5 comment periods so the answer is...its gonna be a while!

4) Some new scientific articles have just been published on one of our major pathogens and I need to read them (with the hope that I can retain the information).

5) Can you write up a summary of the Denver meeting for our weekly internal activity report? Check!

6)A question about the committee meeting minutes sent to me last week....oops I haven't gotten around to reading those....better put that at the top of the list!

7) Questions about the research proposals I sent in last week... where is my project on the spreadsheet.....right here....okay. Check!

8) Now I'm done with emails and I can actually try and do some of the things on my list!! Except its already lunch time...geez.

9) Plans for the afternoon: 3:00 meeting, make phone call to get pricing on promotional materials, complete CA workplan, make edits to soil testing protocol, then get to co-workers going away party on time. Italian food...yummy!

So....its not glamorous but I like it!!! Plus they throw in a plant emergency every now and then to keep you on your toes!

Weekend Pics

The men folk after a thunderstorm brought the barbecue inside!

Abby and Lexie camping on the beach.

Camp fire on the beach, talk about some yummy dinner!! Corn, baked potatoes and turkey sausages. It took 3 hours cooking one thing at a time but that made it taste all the better!

The hottest new fashion trend...paper lab coats!

Ft. Pierce, FL

A few weeks ago I went to Florida with work to put on a conference on citrus diseases. A few of us were able to go out into the experimental orchards and look at some infected fruit. It was pretty awesome! The bottom picture has a healthy orange on the right and an orange infected with citrus greening on the left. The top picture is me holding an orange off a healthy tree. I picked that orange myself then ate it right then and there. It was pretty much the best orange I've ever eaten!! The juice was all over my face, in my hair, and down my shirt but it was sooo worth it!

Hope in a Box