And this little blog went to FL...

"What Dad means by "see" of course, is "drive past at 67 miles per hour." Dad feels it is a foolish waste of valuable vacation time to get out of the car and actually go look at an attraction." - Dave Berry (Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need)

A couple of weeks ago I went on vacation to Key Biscayne, FL. (Key Biscayne is very close to Miami/Fort Lauderdale). The beach was wonderful. Unfortunately, it did rain quiet a bit while we were there - but I actually don't think that really took away from the experience. It rained every afternoon - which made it a perfect time to go shopping or eat lunch.

Arrived in the early afternoon - the perfect time for a late lunch. I would highly recommend the Sawgrass Mills Shopping/Outlet Mall in Sunrise. FL. For lunch I recommend the always amusing Rainforest Cafe (I just love when the restaurant has the "storm" part). Rainforest Cafe has a very yummy veggie burger. I always enjoy looking at the outlet stores.

I would also like to mention (not that any of you care - but I am going to anyway) that we had a spiffy Escape Hybrid as a rental car which I absolutely loved. The ride was smooth and the car was really quiet. I also like the size of the Escape - you get the nice space in the trunk for everything but the car isn't "big" (easy to park, etc). Drove fabulous in the rain too.

Other shopping that I recommend: Dadeland Mall and Village of Merrick Park. Dadeland Mall is extremely large! Every store you can think of is located in Dadeland Mall! (There was a very large Apple Store - and yes I did go look in it...just because...it was there...).

The Village of Merrick Park is an absolutely beautiful outdoor shopping area (since it really isn't a "mall" exactly). I purchased a book at the Border Store there that I been thinking about buying: China Bayles' Book of Days. Excellent book all about herbs and a wonderful companion to the mystery series. (This could have something to do with all the herbs I planted...)

During the trip we also eat at the Hard Rock Cafe in Miami. It is located on the bay - very pretty surroundings. (There is also a mall there too). I do believe that the Hard Rock Cafes have the absolutely best veggie burger anywhere! (There are some fabulous desserts too...but I really do go for the veggie burgers!)

The rest of the vacation was spent sitting on the beach, relaxing, and reading. In the late evenings I watched movies: Quantum of Solace and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1957). As I mentioned in my tweets, I enjoyed both movies. (So I will not bore you with the details yet again!)

Books I recommend from my vacation/beach reads:

• The Lara McClintoch Archaeological Mystery Series by Lyn Hamilton
• The Victorian/Edwardian Mysteries by Robin Paige
• The Sir John Fielding Mysteries by Bruce Alexander

Summary: Had great time on vacation! Highly recommend the area for anyone looking to go on vacation. Well thanks for reading!

Return to the blog

Sorry about not updating. The end of the semester got very busy with a class project, research, grading, and teaching. I just never got around to updating my blog. It was on my todo list, but I just didn't get to it. Then I went on vacation - Virginia for about a week. And because I have nothing better to talk about it today I tell you about my vacation.

The trip was mostly to visit historic places in Virginia. Of course, there was a lot of shopping involved (hey, this is me we are talking about). I did a lot of book shopping on this trip actually. I purchased several books relating to each historic place and I have already started reading two which I will save until another blog (hopefully) later this week.

Mount Vernon - The home of the first President of America, George Washington.  During Christmas time they have an addition to the regular tour, you get to see the third floor.  There is also new museums and exhibits in the Ford Orientation Center and Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center.  If you haven't been there recently, the new exhibits are totally worth the trip.

Colonial Williamsburg - This is were we actually stayed the bulk of the trip.  Although I have been before, it was different this time because I was an adult and I understand a lot more about the history time period.  I really enjoy this historical period.  The place was decorated for Christmas including many of the shops and houses.  There are also special dinner options, we went to this wonderful Christmas feast were I had a salad with the absolutely best ranch buttermilk dressing.  Fun filled fact: when the American revolutionaries stormed the Governor's Palace they removed the weapons on all of the walls, but only after they carefully cataloged each of the weapons.  Therefore, when you visit today they have replaced the weapons with reproductions based on the catalogs.  (Governor's Palace is also one of my favorite buildings to visit).  The Folk Art museum, which I had not visited before, contained many interesting pieces of art.  Although, I will never understand why anyone would want to collect mourning folk art.  However, another fun fact:  Mourning folk art became more common in America following the death of George Washington.

Jamestown and Yorktown - Each place had interesting exhibits.  Not much specific to tell, but interesting exhibits.  You can actually see the original foundation of Jamestown at the Jamestown.  For even more information see the America's Historic Triangle website.

Monticello - The home of Thomas Jefferson (president and author of the Declaration of Independence).  Although I have been before, this time we took the special candle light tour which included seeing the third floor dome room.  The view from Monticello is amazing, but even more amazing from the third floor.

The whole trip was a ton of fun and if you have never been, I totally recommend that you do.  I enjoyed the step back in time.  I also learned that there are many similarities in politics of then to politics now.  Hopefully, I didn't completely bore you during this blog.  I am really going to try and update a little more often - stay tuned.

Back to the Grind..

"Objection, your Honor. You can't preface your second point with 'first of all.'" - Alan Shore (Boston Legal)

Sorry for the massive lack of updates - yet again. The last weeks of school were horribly busy. Then I left for a week of vacation (at the warm and sunny beaches of Florida). Last week was the first week of the summar term (and then I caught yet another flu bug). I am taking only one class this term and not working which I am finding quiet interesting experience. The class is lots of fun - no honest. Well, I should get back to my reading. I shall you leave you with the following links:

Current DVD obsession: Season 2 of Boston Legal on DVD
Current Song obession: "Babylon" by David Gray

Interesting News:
"Numbers follow a surprising law of digits, and scientists can't explain why"

"Why Mathematicians Now Care About Their Hat Color"

Thanks for stopping by and reading. Hope I get back to regular updates, but I am not holding my breath ;-)

Happy Holidays!

"Light the lamp, not the rat, light the lamp." - Rizzo the Rat (The Muppet Christmas Carol)

I finally finished sorting out grades and submitted them! Yippee. Now I can claim to be completely done (although I haven't had to do much for the past few days). Anyway, I have been busy with holiday activities - shopping, decorating, packing...

Yes, I have been packing for the family vacation. Where are we going? Florida - Orlando Florida to be exact. We are going after my graduation from BGSU :-) I am getting very excited - over both things. But enough about me...

Here are some articles you might enjoy:
"First vortex 'chains' observed in engineered superconductor"

"Printers to produce life-saving organs"

"Scientists' 'recipe' to help build a quantum computer"

Want to wish you all happy holidays! Because this may be one of the last chances I have to post a blog before the holidays start. Anyway, have a wonderful time. I will write an entertaining blog about my vacation when I get back.

Quantum Teleportation

Alternate Title: "Beam Me Up Scotty, Well Sort Of"

Wednesday night in class we discussed quantum teleportation. I know you think I am kidding, but I am not. It is an interest subject. They really have done quantum teleportation in a lab environment with one particle. For more information (and better information then I could ever try to explain) on quantum teleportation see the links below.

For background information on Quantum Teleportation from IBM.

About the lab experiement see this site.

Here is a recent article that mentions quantum teleportation.

Here is another.

Well, I hope you find the links interesting. I will be heading towards the land where they don't have internet access for a couple of days and figured I would update my blog before I left. As of Wednesday evening I am offically on spring break! Yippee. I am very exciting to finally be on break. Well, until next week...