TEAM JCAT: November Happenings and Festival of Lights

Here we are at the beginning of yet another month. Only this time we are in I would have to say my second favorite, maybe it is even tied for first. I love Christmas and the time before when everything and everyone gets ready for this special time. Before I get carried away talking all about Christmas, I need to spend time talking about what we've been up to this past month. I've already posted about our Thanksgiving and have posted my 30 days of things I'm thankful for. You're probably wondering what else could I possibly have to talk about or maybe you're just sick of me posting things. Either way, I'm here to give you an update any way.

Let's go all the way back to the end of October. Tracy attended two conferences the last week of October and into the first part of November. The first conference he went to was for the Geological Society of America (GSA). This year it was in Denver. He had a poster presentation which he was a co-author for. He wasn't the first author, so he didn't have to put together to poster just provide some of the information. The first time he saw the finish product was at the conference. He attended the conference with his adviser and his other fellow grad-students. He had a good time and met new people, as well as saw old friends.

I just picked a few pictures from the conferences to share that I think are interesting enough to share on here.

The conference center had this big blue bear outside looking in.

This is what Tracy calls the Droser posse.
It is his adviser ( in the white shirt) and her current and past students who were at the conference.
Only Tracy isn't pictured because he was taking the picture.

The day he returned from the GSA conference, he left again to the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) conference. Only it was in LA, so an hour away. It was still far enough and not worth fighting traffic to drive back and forth each day. At SVP Tracy presented a poster on his swim tracks that he's working on for his Master's Thesis. I call them his swim tracks because he pretty much is only one working on the swims track in Southern Utah right now.
During the conference, he got to go to The de Saisset Museum. Here are a couple of pictures from there:

He was right in downtown L.A.

I'm a big fan of buildings. The cooler it looks the better.

Tracy also attended a conference a couple of weeks ago in Death Valley. His adviser wanted him to attend because on the last day of the conference they had a field trip to some track sites that the general public doesn't get to see. He attended with some other fellow grad-students.

The weekend of the conference there was a full moon.

At the track site there are these hoof tracks. Pretty cool.

Pretty much Tracy attending conferences has been what our month was like. I got sick with a horrible cold that started out as a cough for almost 2 weeks, then turned to nasal congestion and cough for a week, then just a cough again. Finally it has left me alone, though I still cough occasionally. James came down with the cold a couple of weeks ago and still has a little cough. Tracy got the cold last week and is still suffering. Hopefully, this is the only illness we end up with this winter.

I'm still in the habit of taking pictures of the sunsets from our patio.

And of James watching me take pictures of the sunsets.

And of the other funny things James does.

Being a big ham.

He pretended to be a cat for several weeks.
He even had a name, Gnocchi. (Someone's been watching Curious George, A LOT!)
One day he tried to get in the kitty cubbie. Didn't work too well.

James and I have a system when putting groceries away.

Now I think I have covered all the November happenings, except one, the Festival of Lights. The Festival of Lights has been going on in downtown Riverside for 21 years. It runs from the day after Thanksgiving till a few days after New Year's. It is completely funded and organized by The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa. The owners started the festival a year after they bought The Mission Inn. The Inn gets completely covered in lights and they put over 400 animated figurines on display. The festival includes an Outdoor Ice Skating Rink, entertainment each day, specialty vendors and food, Carriage Rides, and Live Music. It is so fun to go to.

Last year we went the night after Thanksgiving where they had the "Switch-On Ceremony" and we went again this year. The ceremony starts with songs played by the Riverside Community College Marching Band, which I enjoy a lot. We managed to squeeze into the crowd and got about as close as we did last year.