Happy Anniversary, Sarah!
Today is our 4th anniversary. I really can't believe it has been 4 years! Seems like 44 - just kidding. It has gone by so fast. I love you very much.- Jason
Friday, May 30, 2008
Happy Anniversary
Today is our 4th anniversary. I really can't believe it has been 4 years! Seems like 44 - just kidding. It has gone by so fast. I love you very much.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Duck, NC (Monday, May 26, 2008)
Today was a sad day. Not long after breakfast, Ed and Jeanette left, followed soon after by Andrew, Hazel, and Isabela. Then it was just us. We hated to see everyone leave, but worse, we didn't want to leave. We finished tidying up, took 1 last short walk on the beach, and then left at around 12:30.
We had a long, quiet ride home. We were all worn out and each took turns sleeping on the way home. We finally made it home at about 8pm. I drove rather slowly, but it is worth it, because we got 47.3mpg! That's after getting 45.4mpg on the way down. I love driving my truck, but I sure like the gas mileage in the little car.
Well, I guess that's it for our vacation - our last one before our 2nd baby is born and probably the last one we'll be able to take for a while. Check back often, because we may add pictures and/or video as we think of things.
Thanks, Anne and Rich, for letting us use the house! We had a wonderful time!
We had a long, quiet ride home. We were all worn out and each took turns sleeping on the way home. We finally made it home at about 8pm. I drove rather slowly, but it is worth it, because we got 47.3mpg! That's after getting 45.4mpg on the way down. I love driving my truck, but I sure like the gas mileage in the little car.
Well, I guess that's it for our vacation - our last one before our 2nd baby is born and probably the last one we'll be able to take for a while. Check back often, because we may add pictures and/or video as we think of things.
Thanks, Anne and Rich, for letting us use the house! We had a wonderful time!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Paleo Article in Philly Inquirer
Here is an article that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday (5/26/08) about our Paleoecology class that goes out to collected fossils each week.
In case the link changes or is deleted sometime soon, I've posted the text below.
You can download a pdf version (with more photos/images) at this addess :http://www.mediafire.com/?oihimeeyudw
Caption: "Ken Lacovara, an associate professor of biosciences at Drexel, examines a shark's tooth found with other fragments of ancient animals that livedin the once-ocean-covered Gloucester County. Below is a fang from a sabertooth salmon dating back to about 65 million years ago."
Sedimental Journey
A Gloucester County mine pit is a rich site for paleontologists, who recently unearthed a mystery. By Tom Avril
The fish was in an odd place.
It was the fossil of a sabertooth salmon: a fanged, fearsome-looking creature that lived in the waning days of the dinosaurs.
But it was buried in the greenish New Jersey sediment known as glauconite - in a layer of earth thought to date from after the dinos' demise.
A Drexel University undergraduate named (no joke) Jesse Salmons made the curious, 65-million-year-old discovery April 30, in an old Gloucester County mine pit.
A few weeks later, along with a paleontologist from the New Jersey State Museum, some of his fellow students returned to tackle the aquatic puzzle: Just when did Enchodus ferox patrol the ocean?
This is part of the Enchodus jaw with one of the large fangs.
The answer was a surprise.
The fish is one of at least six fossilized beasts unearthed recently by the students of Drexel's Ken Lacovara, an associate professor of biosciences. Also in the mix are bits of two sharks and three crocodiles, which will one day be housed in the newly renovated state museum.
A typical day's haul is a few shark teeth, or perhaps a bit of crocodile armor; the new batch of bones is one of the group's best in years. It will help scientists flesh out the picture of an age when the world was in flux.
New Jersey was a hot, swampy place back then, and much of it was underwater. The atmosphere was dense with heat-trapping greenhouse gases - far more so than today, although Lacovara says the era provides a valuable illustration of where the world might be headed:
"I like to quote something that Winston Churchill once said: 'The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.' "
Rainbow of time
The mine pit is owned by Inversand Co., which asked that the exact location not be disclosed, to prevent passersby from climbing its steep, shifting hillsides. But the company welcomes the academic fossil-hunters.
It's a muddy but ideal place to dig for bones, as the miners' heavy equipment has exposed a veritable rainbow of New Jersey prehistory:
At the pit's bottom is the chocolate-brown Navesink formation, deposited more than 65million years ago during the Cretaceous period. Then comes the Hornerstown layer of glauconite - sometimes called marl, as in nearby Marlton. After that the olive-drab Vincentown layer and the yellow-hued Kirkwood. On top, deposited within the last two million years, is the gravelly Pennsauken layer.
Salmons found his fish fossil - two pieces of jaw with intact smaller teeth and two longer fangs - in glauconite.
Scientists believe this dark-green sediment was deposited in the years after a meteor slammed into Earth, leading to a mass extinction. Yet all quality specimens of Enchodus - sometimes called a sabertooth herring instead of salmon, as it may be an ancestor of one or the other - had previously been dated to the Cretaceous.
This meant one of four things:
1. The species was around for a greater chunk of prehistory than previously thought - outlasting the dinosaurs.
2. This fish fossil really was from the Cretaceous, but ocean currents and other natural forces churned up the sediment after it died, so the bits of bone eventually came to rest in a higher, more recent layer of earth. (Team members discounted this option, though, as there were multiple intact bones from one animal in the same place.)
3. In this muddy New Jersey pit, perhaps the Cretaceous actually did not begin until after the sediment changed from brown to green.
4. The fish wasn't a sabertooth salmon after all.
Answering this question meant getting really dirty.
Jason Schein, a Drexel doctoral student and an assistant curator at the state museum in Trenton, helped dig out the fish on May 7. He was up almost to his waist in brown water.
Caption: "Drexel student Jesse Salmons (top) stays somewhat dry as fellow student Jason Schein, also an assistant curator at the New Jersey State Museum, works in the waters of the marl pit."
Others stuck to drier ground, but got equally filthy. Glauconite feels like a mix of sand and clay - though in a strict geological sense, it is neither - and it readily adheres to boots and clothes.
Using a shovel and smaller tools, doctoral students Victoria Egerton and Jessica Battisto worked to expose one of the crocodiles and a shark.
Digging up the past
The diggers left an earthen boundary around each specimen so as not to expose too much of the brownish, petrified bones. They then "jacketed" the mud-covered fossils with plaster-soaked strips of burlap, so that each could be safely lifted out for the trip to Philadelphia.
Caption: "Jason Poole, lab manager at the Academy of Natural Sciences, holds the vertebrae of a crocodile from about 65 million years ago. It's part of the findings from the Gloucester County dig penetrating multiple geologic layers."
Professor Lacovara oversaw it all, darting from fossil to fossil to offer his students advice. He travels the world to dig up old bones - Egypt, Argentina, China -and knows how to say burlap and plaster in four languages.
But with an infant son at home, he likes digging less than a half-hour from his Drexel office. And Salmons, the undergrad who found the fish, likes the hands-on "classroom."
"It got me hooked really quick," he says.
The team took the plaster-coated fossils to the Academy of Natural Sciences. Fossil preparators began the painstaking work of clearing the remaining sediment from the bones, under the direction of lab manager Jason Poole.
As each fossil started to emerge, they dabbed on a chemical to harden the bone. Schein, who did his master's thesis on Enchodus, was sure that the new fish belonged to that species.
But why was it buried in glauconite?
So the Drexel students went back to the pit 12 days ago with Bill Gallagher, assistant curator at the state museum - an old hand at gauging the sediment of the Garden State. He has been trolling for fossils in glauconite pits since he was in junior high, in the 1960s.
Gallagher brought a Nikon hand level - a telescope with an air bubble that reveals when the device is being held precisely horizontal.
His goal was to see whether the fish had been found at the same depth as a fossil-rich layer they had discovered previously on the other side of the pit, more than 150feet away.
That layer was known to be from the early Tertiary period - the beginning of the age of mammals. So if the fish was at the same depth, it belonged to the same moment in time.
But there was an obstacle in Gallagher's line of sight: a big ridge of mud that had been deposited by the miners' earth-moving equipment. So he had to break up the surveying into two parts, and later subtract the height of the ridge that was in his way.
When Gallagher finally aimed his scope at the opposite side of the pit, doctoral candidate Chris Coughenour clambered up the wall.
"Get back on the face," Gallagher called out across the void. "Yeah, that's it. Higher! Higher!"
Coughenour placed an orange flag in the dirt. Gallagher and Lacovara soon joined him, and the trio took turns digging down to the fossil-rich layer. Would it be at the same depth as where Salmons found his fanged fish?
At last, a clue
After some vigorous digging, Gallagher's shovel struck something hard. It was a prehistoric clam. The beginning of the layer that contained fossils.
Lacovara pulled out his tape measure and determined that the clam was at just about the same depth as the fish and the other new fossils far across the pit.
The early Tertiary period. The species, it seemed, had outlasted the dinosaurs.
"This might be the first time that we can definitively identify Enchodus as a survivor of sorts," Gallagher says.
Drexel's Lacovara was cautious.
"I'd like to find a few more of them" before making any definitive judgment.
So he and Gallagher and the students will be back again, year after year, as long as the mine owners will have them. "Science is a process of small, incremental steps," Gallagher says, "that we hope get closer and closer to the truth."
Caption: "Students Jessica Battisto (left) and Victoria Egerton work at the muddy dig in Gloucester County."
In case the link changes or is deleted sometime soon, I've posted the text below.
You can download a pdf version (with more photos/images) at this addess :http://www.mediafire.com/?oihimeeyudw
Caption: "Ken Lacovara, an associate professor of biosciences at Drexel, examines a shark's tooth found with other fragments of ancient animals that livedin the once-ocean-covered Gloucester County. Below is a fang from a sabertooth salmon dating back to about 65 million years ago."
Sedimental Journey
A Gloucester County mine pit is a rich site for paleontologists, who recently unearthed a mystery. By Tom Avril
The fish was in an odd place.
It was the fossil of a sabertooth salmon: a fanged, fearsome-looking creature that lived in the waning days of the dinosaurs.
But it was buried in the greenish New Jersey sediment known as glauconite - in a layer of earth thought to date from after the dinos' demise.
A Drexel University undergraduate named (no joke) Jesse Salmons made the curious, 65-million-year-old discovery April 30, in an old Gloucester County mine pit.
A few weeks later, along with a paleontologist from the New Jersey State Museum, some of his fellow students returned to tackle the aquatic puzzle: Just when did Enchodus ferox patrol the ocean?
This is part of the Enchodus jaw with one of the large fangs.
The answer was a surprise.
The fish is one of at least six fossilized beasts unearthed recently by the students of Drexel's Ken Lacovara, an associate professor of biosciences. Also in the mix are bits of two sharks and three crocodiles, which will one day be housed in the newly renovated state museum.
A typical day's haul is a few shark teeth, or perhaps a bit of crocodile armor; the new batch of bones is one of the group's best in years. It will help scientists flesh out the picture of an age when the world was in flux.
New Jersey was a hot, swampy place back then, and much of it was underwater. The atmosphere was dense with heat-trapping greenhouse gases - far more so than today, although Lacovara says the era provides a valuable illustration of where the world might be headed:
"I like to quote something that Winston Churchill once said: 'The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.' "
Rainbow of time
The mine pit is owned by Inversand Co., which asked that the exact location not be disclosed, to prevent passersby from climbing its steep, shifting hillsides. But the company welcomes the academic fossil-hunters.
It's a muddy but ideal place to dig for bones, as the miners' heavy equipment has exposed a veritable rainbow of New Jersey prehistory:
At the pit's bottom is the chocolate-brown Navesink formation, deposited more than 65million years ago during the Cretaceous period. Then comes the Hornerstown layer of glauconite - sometimes called marl, as in nearby Marlton. After that the olive-drab Vincentown layer and the yellow-hued Kirkwood. On top, deposited within the last two million years, is the gravelly Pennsauken layer.
Salmons found his fish fossil - two pieces of jaw with intact smaller teeth and two longer fangs - in glauconite.
Scientists believe this dark-green sediment was deposited in the years after a meteor slammed into Earth, leading to a mass extinction. Yet all quality specimens of Enchodus - sometimes called a sabertooth herring instead of salmon, as it may be an ancestor of one or the other - had previously been dated to the Cretaceous.
This meant one of four things:
1. The species was around for a greater chunk of prehistory than previously thought - outlasting the dinosaurs.
2. This fish fossil really was from the Cretaceous, but ocean currents and other natural forces churned up the sediment after it died, so the bits of bone eventually came to rest in a higher, more recent layer of earth. (Team members discounted this option, though, as there were multiple intact bones from one animal in the same place.)
3. In this muddy New Jersey pit, perhaps the Cretaceous actually did not begin until after the sediment changed from brown to green.
4. The fish wasn't a sabertooth salmon after all.
Answering this question meant getting really dirty.
Jason Schein, a Drexel doctoral student and an assistant curator at the state museum in Trenton, helped dig out the fish on May 7. He was up almost to his waist in brown water.
Caption: "Drexel student Jesse Salmons (top) stays somewhat dry as fellow student Jason Schein, also an assistant curator at the New Jersey State Museum, works in the waters of the marl pit."
Others stuck to drier ground, but got equally filthy. Glauconite feels like a mix of sand and clay - though in a strict geological sense, it is neither - and it readily adheres to boots and clothes.
Using a shovel and smaller tools, doctoral students Victoria Egerton and Jessica Battisto worked to expose one of the crocodiles and a shark.
Digging up the past
The diggers left an earthen boundary around each specimen so as not to expose too much of the brownish, petrified bones. They then "jacketed" the mud-covered fossils with plaster-soaked strips of burlap, so that each could be safely lifted out for the trip to Philadelphia.
Caption: "Jason Poole, lab manager at the Academy of Natural Sciences, holds the vertebrae of a crocodile from about 65 million years ago. It's part of the findings from the Gloucester County dig penetrating multiple geologic layers."
Professor Lacovara oversaw it all, darting from fossil to fossil to offer his students advice. He travels the world to dig up old bones - Egypt, Argentina, China -and knows how to say burlap and plaster in four languages.
But with an infant son at home, he likes digging less than a half-hour from his Drexel office. And Salmons, the undergrad who found the fish, likes the hands-on "classroom."
"It got me hooked really quick," he says.
The team took the plaster-coated fossils to the Academy of Natural Sciences. Fossil preparators began the painstaking work of clearing the remaining sediment from the bones, under the direction of lab manager Jason Poole.
As each fossil started to emerge, they dabbed on a chemical to harden the bone. Schein, who did his master's thesis on Enchodus, was sure that the new fish belonged to that species.
But why was it buried in glauconite?
So the Drexel students went back to the pit 12 days ago with Bill Gallagher, assistant curator at the state museum - an old hand at gauging the sediment of the Garden State. He has been trolling for fossils in glauconite pits since he was in junior high, in the 1960s.
Gallagher brought a Nikon hand level - a telescope with an air bubble that reveals when the device is being held precisely horizontal.
His goal was to see whether the fish had been found at the same depth as a fossil-rich layer they had discovered previously on the other side of the pit, more than 150feet away.
That layer was known to be from the early Tertiary period - the beginning of the age of mammals. So if the fish was at the same depth, it belonged to the same moment in time.
But there was an obstacle in Gallagher's line of sight: a big ridge of mud that had been deposited by the miners' earth-moving equipment. So he had to break up the surveying into two parts, and later subtract the height of the ridge that was in his way.
When Gallagher finally aimed his scope at the opposite side of the pit, doctoral candidate Chris Coughenour clambered up the wall.
"Get back on the face," Gallagher called out across the void. "Yeah, that's it. Higher! Higher!"
Coughenour placed an orange flag in the dirt. Gallagher and Lacovara soon joined him, and the trio took turns digging down to the fossil-rich layer. Would it be at the same depth as where Salmons found his fanged fish?
At last, a clue
After some vigorous digging, Gallagher's shovel struck something hard. It was a prehistoric clam. The beginning of the layer that contained fossils.
Lacovara pulled out his tape measure and determined that the clam was at just about the same depth as the fish and the other new fossils far across the pit.
The early Tertiary period. The species, it seemed, had outlasted the dinosaurs.
"This might be the first time that we can definitively identify Enchodus as a survivor of sorts," Gallagher says.
Drexel's Lacovara was cautious.
"I'd like to find a few more of them" before making any definitive judgment.
So he and Gallagher and the students will be back again, year after year, as long as the mine owners will have them. "Science is a process of small, incremental steps," Gallagher says, "that we hope get closer and closer to the truth."
Caption: "Students Jessica Battisto (left) and Victoria Egerton work at the muddy dig in Gloucester County."
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Duck, NC (Sunday, May 25, 2008)
Gorgeous morning. I finally was able to sleep in a little and got up ~9am. Most people just had bagels for breakfast, but I cooked eggs, leftover steak, and cheese grits for Ed and I. The wind is light and it looks like it's going to be the warmest day so far.
We spent most of the morning and early afternoon relaxing at the beach. I was finally able to put the beach umbrella up, so we had some nice shade. It was warm in the sun, but the wind made it perfect. Everyone was out there and we mostly just relaxed. I could have taken a nap. Isabella played in the sand and Ed & I played Prokadima (paddle ball), but we're not very good. Jeannette and I were actually pretty good. Lincoln had a great time too. He's a beach bum, even though he won't swim without someone else out there.
Soon after, it was time to start dinner, with lots of hors d'oerves (chips & cheeze whiz, Ed's calamari, shrimp cocktail) and a late dinner. We made teryaki-marinaded seafood kabob's, with shrimp, tuna steaks, scallops, bacon, green peppers, mushrooms, and pineapple. It was really good, and turned out pretty well for our 1st time, though not perfect. It took longer than expected, and as it cooked most everyone else cleaned the house.
We spent most of the morning and early afternoon relaxing at the beach. I was finally able to put the beach umbrella up, so we had some nice shade. It was warm in the sun, but the wind made it perfect. Everyone was out there and we mostly just relaxed. I could have taken a nap. Isabella played in the sand and Ed & I played Prokadima (paddle ball), but we're not very good. Jeannette and I were actually pretty good. Lincoln had a great time too. He's a beach bum, even though he won't swim without someone else out there.
We mostly just bummed around all afternoon too. Ed and Jeanette, then Andrew and Hazel took turns in the hot tub. I showed Ed and Jeanette how to put up my small tent, because they're taking it with them on their trip. Sarah then shaved off our mohawks. We went back down to the beach for a little while late in the afternoon for another round of Prokadima and pictures in the waning evening light. 
Soon after, it was time to start dinner, with lots of hors d'oerves (chips & cheeze whiz, Ed's calamari, shrimp cocktail) and a late dinner. We made teryaki-marinaded seafood kabob's, with shrimp, tuna steaks, scallops, bacon, green peppers, mushrooms, and pineapple. It was really good, and turned out pretty well for our 1st time, though not perfect. It took longer than expected, and as it cooked most everyone else cleaned the house. After dinner we watched a little tv, then went to bed. Everyone was expecting a long day on Monday.
Duck, NC (Saturday, May 24, 2008)
It rained lightly over night and still in the morning. It began clearing by 11am and was very nice, although warm with almost no wind. We all went down to the beach for quite a while. After wearing himself out, Lincoln laid down in the sand beside me. I started putting sand on his tail and paws, thinking he'd get up when he'd had enough. He never did - I buried his entire body except his head, and he only got up when I put a hat over his head. It was really funny.
Lincoln being buried in the sand.
So next we buried Jeannette up to her neck as she sat in her beach chair. We gave her a mermaid's body complete with scales, and boobs with horseshoe crab shells for bras. Very nice.
We went inside for lunch at ~1:30, and after everyone finally got rounded up, we went into Duck for some lunch at the Duck Deli - a BBQ place. Afterwards, we walked around some of the shops in Duck, got some ice cream at "I scream, You Scream", then drove to more shops in Corolla. Once we were done with those, everyone except Andrew, Hazel, and Isabela (who, unfortunately,was not feeling well), drove farther North to the Corolla lighthouse park. The lighthouse is a beautiful old brick structure. Unfortunately, all of the buildings and nature center were closed for the night, but we still walked around, took pictures, then walked over to the edge of the water where there were lots of beautiful Live Oak trees. We took lots of pictures of all of us in and around those trees as the sun set. It is a very nice park, with lots of wildlife. We watched a Great Blue Heron catch and try to eat a fish that was really too big for it to eat. Really a beautiful bird.
After getting back, we had hors d'oerves, then cooked dinner - venison burgers, fettuccini, mashed potatos, corn on the cob, salad, and whatever else we had in there.
After dinner, Jeannette used the Elmer's glue to give Ed and I "real" mohawks. His looked pretty good, but mine looked ridiculous.
We played catch phrase again for a little while, but we weren't as into it as we were the night before, so we went to bed ~12am. Another great day.
Lincoln being buried in the sand.So next we buried Jeannette up to her neck as she sat in her beach chair. We gave her a mermaid's body complete with scales, and boobs with horseshoe crab shells for bras. Very nice.
We went inside for lunch at ~1:30, and after everyone finally got rounded up, we went into Duck for some lunch at the Duck Deli - a BBQ place. Afterwards, we walked around some of the shops in Duck, got some ice cream at "I scream, You Scream", then drove to more shops in Corolla. Once we were done with those, everyone except Andrew, Hazel, and Isabela (who, unfortunately,was not feeling well), drove farther North to the Corolla lighthouse park. The lighthouse is a beautiful old brick structure. Unfortunately, all of the buildings and nature center were closed for the night, but we still walked around, took pictures, then walked over to the edge of the water where there were lots of beautiful Live Oak trees. We took lots of pictures of all of us in and around those trees as the sun set. It is a very nice park, with lots of wildlife. We watched a Great Blue Heron catch and try to eat a fish that was really too big for it to eat. Really a beautiful bird.
After getting back, we had hors d'oerves, then cooked dinner - venison burgers, fettuccini, mashed potatos, corn on the cob, salad, and whatever else we had in there.
After dinner, Jeannette used the Elmer's glue to give Ed and I "real" mohawks. His looked pretty good, but mine looked ridiculous.
We played catch phrase again for a little while, but we weren't as into it as we were the night before, so we went to bed ~12am. Another great day.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Duck, NC (Friday, May 23, 2008)
Another beautiful day. We had biscuits and gravy for breakfast, then hung out on the beach. Ed, Jeanette, Sarah, Lincoln and I walked up the beach and found dozens of those beautful dead puffer fish. We didn't walk far because Sarah doesn't last long without needing a bathroom since her bladder is being smothered by baby Schein.
We cooked burgers for lunch and ate them on the deck by the pool. Too bad it's really too cold to get in and enjoy. Burgers were great though, despite the fact that Lincoln stole Andrew's Cajun Blue Cheese burger. Isabela finally started to recognize Lincoln and she was climbing on him as he laid on her towel. We got some cute pictures of them together.
In the afternoon we drove onto the mainland to get a slurpie (for Ed), a hat (for Jeanette), and then on to Jockey Ridge State Park, which is a beautiful little park with nature trails leading to giant sand dunes - the largest natural dunes on the East Coast. It was really a nice place. There were people learning to hang glide off the dunes, so we watched that, hiked to the top of the dunes, and took some pictures. We convinced Jeanette to climb up one last time and run down - she purposely fell a couple of times, and ended up getting sand all over her. Classic.
On the way back we stopped at a little ice cream / grill-type place and had cookie-ice cream sandwiches and "beach fries", which were fries with cheese and chili. They were pretty good.
Dinner was steak, mashed potatoes, Jeanette's special fettuccini alfredo, and Jason's grilled onions. All of it was pretty good, but we were exhausted afterwards. We started playing "Catch Phrase, and Ed and Jeanette were skeptical at first (they usually don't like to play games..unlike the Wiley's), but it ended up being a lot of fun. We played until 1:30am. We played boys against girls....and the girls ended up winning (fair and square) 93 to 80!!! (go girl power!!!)
Pat Nugent, brother of Ed's friend Ryan, and Pat's girlfriend Amanda, arrived ~11pm. They played with us and had a great time too.
We cooked burgers for lunch and ate them on the deck by the pool. Too bad it's really too cold to get in and enjoy. Burgers were great though, despite the fact that Lincoln stole Andrew's Cajun Blue Cheese burger. Isabela finally started to recognize Lincoln and she was climbing on him as he laid on her towel. We got some cute pictures of them together.
In the afternoon we drove onto the mainland to get a slurpie (for Ed), a hat (for Jeanette), and then on to Jockey Ridge State Park, which is a beautiful little park with nature trails leading to giant sand dunes - the largest natural dunes on the East Coast. It was really a nice place. There were people learning to hang glide off the dunes, so we watched that, hiked to the top of the dunes, and took some pictures. We convinced Jeanette to climb up one last time and run down - she purposely fell a couple of times, and ended up getting sand all over her. Classic.
On the way back we stopped at a little ice cream / grill-type place and had cookie-ice cream sandwiches and "beach fries", which were fries with cheese and chili. They were pretty good.
Dinner was steak, mashed potatoes, Jeanette's special fettuccini alfredo, and Jason's grilled onions. All of it was pretty good, but we were exhausted afterwards. We started playing "Catch Phrase, and Ed and Jeanette were skeptical at first (they usually don't like to play games..unlike the Wiley's), but it ended up being a lot of fun. We played until 1:30am. We played boys against girls....and the girls ended up winning (fair and square) 93 to 80!!! (go girl power!!!)
Pat Nugent, brother of Ed's friend Ryan, and Pat's girlfriend Amanda, arrived ~11pm. They played with us and had a great time too.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Duck, NC (Thursday, May 22, 2008)
Another beautiful day. We started our day by Sarah giving Ed and I mohawks. Ed had been wanting a mohawk for months and so his dream was finally coming true. Somehow I ended up with a mohawk, long side burns, and a goatee.
We hung out around the house and beach the rest of the morning. Lincoln just loves the beach. Running in the sand and walking through the water. He'd swim if we did, but the water is pretty cold, and it isn't hot enough outside to get in. He's been great.
I collected more fish vertebrae and dried cartilage in the storm high tide line. Most of the cartilage pieces are of 2 different shapes. I think 1 of them is from the top of the skull area and I'm pretty sure the other type is the jaw aparatus, which means there have been lots of stingrays that have died on this beach recently.
I collected more fish vertebrae and dried cartilage in the storm high tide line. Most of the cartilage pieces are of 2 different shapes. I think 1 of them is from the top of the skull area and I'm pretty sure the other type is the jaw aparatus, which means there have been lots of stingrays that have died on this beach recently.
In the afternoon we drove onto the mainland and went to a putt-putt place called Professor Hacker's Treasure who was a Geologist (perfect for Jason of course). Sarah won, but I think her extra bulbousness gave her an unfair advantage. That, plus the cheating. (Jason's just jealous!!) I did win but only by one point..Sarah. Hazel had help from Isabela as she was carrying her in the baby Bjorn...which made it difficult for Hazel to see the ball as she putted.
We cooked seafood (scallops, shrimp and clams) with pasta for dinner...yummy!!
Duck, NC (Wednesday, May 21, 20008)
We arrived at ~4am this morning after a very long drive. We were kind of lazy for most of the rest of the day because we were so tired. We went to the grocery store, came home and took naps, then walked on the beach a bit.
There were a lot of interesting things on the beach. First, there was a dead but beautiful puffer fish.
Also, there were hundreds (thousands?) of shark egg cases (below) and lots of sting ray egg cases.
Best of all, there were 5 dead sting rays; 3 of one fairly big species with a big shovel-like structure under their noses (a quickk internet search shows this to be an Atlantic Cownose Ray), and 2 guitar-fish like rays. I cut the tail off of one of the Cownose rays to try to collect the barb - it looks exactly like the 65 million year old fossil versions we find in New Jersey. The tail is in a bucket with bleach water to get the flesh off.
Atlantic Cow Nose Ray - "Overfishing the great sharks on the U.S. east coast has had major ecosystem consequences: abundances of their skate, ray, and small shark prey species have increased tremendously, and the explosion in cownose ray abundance has devastated a century-long bay scallop fishery." All of the dead cownose rays on the beach seem to cooberate this. Here's a link to the paper: http://www.mediafire.com/?bmlemhxvi23
Clear-nose Ray ???
Ed and Jeanette arrived around 8pm. We cooked dinner (burgers, fries, baked beans, salad). The girls watched the finale of American Idol. Andrew, Hazel, and Isabela arrived around 9:30pm. They flew into Norfolk, VA and rented a car to drive down. Isabela has changed so much since we saw her in February (3 months ago). She looks so much older...so cute! It's truly amazing how quickly baby's change. We were all pretty tired, so we went to bed after catching up for a little while (~12am).
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Sarah and Jason's Blog - The Beginning
Sarah and I are starting this blog because we thought it would be a good way for us to keep our family and close friends informed with our lives, especially with our 2nd baby coming in August (with Lincoln being the 1st, of course). We hope you enjoy reading it and please feel free to leave comments and new posts. See you soon,
Jason
This picture was taken a few weeks ago when Sarah was ~6 1/2 months. She's really started to pop out now that she's almost 8 months pregnant!!
Jason
This picture was taken a few weeks ago when Sarah was ~6 1/2 months. She's really started to pop out now that she's almost 8 months pregnant!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)