Welcome Erin

Erin arrived on Thursday. We went to Arlington Cemetery; volunteers had placed wreaths out on the graves. It is a visual reminder of sacrifice. We also saw the Second Shepherd's Play at the Folger's Theater that evening. An entertaining and nontraditional Christmas show.

Happy Holidays!

Every city looks festive this time of year, but DC has some unique visuals. Anne took this photo with our cell phone one night around 11 pm. For a town with so much traffic during the day, the downtown traffic is pretty minimal at 11 pm. For this Madisonian, there is too little snowfall and too much green on the ground to give this time of year that magical mystic of sleds and reindeer.

A Visit to Long Island

I (Ack) went back to Long Island this week, including a ferry ride to Shelter Island (hence the picture). This being the holiday season I reminisced on a couple of odd random memories. I remembered how careful my Dad was about wrapping gifts for my Mom. He'd do that in the garage and if the wrapping paper had a geometric patter it was hard to find the seems. I remember Mike and I going to midnight mass. Walking to St. Luke's with our hair wet, then it would freeze and we'd comb snow out of our hair when we got to church. I remember after my first course in meteorology going home during winter break and shopping with Margaret. Earlier in the day I had seen cirrus clouds with sundogs. She was impressed that I knew what caused them. When we went out shopping, the cirrus was replaced by altostratus, with a 'watery sun', so not very thick. When came out of the Smithaven Mall after about an hour, the altostratus had thickened and it was cold. I suggested we leave to go home in order to beat the snow/sleet. She gave me a look as to say 'Yea, right'. She probably thought I was getting rid of her, but by the time we got home it was sleeting. She was very impressed.

Lots of Great Music

I've been enjoying all the opportunities for great free music in DC. (Well, not ALL of them - there's too many.) The Homegrown concerts at the Library of Congress put on by the American Folklife Center feature excellent local performers from different states. November 15, folklorist Andrea Graham brought Dallas Chief Eagle, of the Rosebud Sioux tribe, and Jasmine Pickner, of the Crow Creek Sioux tribe, from South Dakota to perform hoop dances. AMAZING! Take a look at the video of their performance at the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage later that night. A highlight for me -- I joined the volunteers on stage to learn a simple version of a hoop dance. It was challenging and loads of fun!

Yesterday, West Virginia had its turn with Gandydancer, an impressive old time string band. Beautiful harmonies, excellent instrumentation, and an interesting mix of styles of songs and tunes. After their noon concert at AFC, they were whisked away to play at Senator Robert Byrd's surprise 90th birthday party. That night they played at the Kennedy Center. Watch that December 12 performance.

(Photos are from the Kennedy Center website.)

First Snow...

Madison WI got 6" of snow on Dec 1 along with sleet and freezing rain. Emails abound about how best to clear the sidewalk and one-stage versus 2-stage snow blowers. The storm caused the cancellation of the AOS Solstice party - which made national news. An Alberta clipper went through on Dec 4 and dropped another 4" and everyone seemed to still make it to work, while the threat of 1" in DC results in school delays and closures along with traffic jams.

This photo is off the porch in Steve/Betty's house around noon on Dec 5. With these condition, Anne still headed to Baltimore for a conference while I decided to stay at the house and work to avoid commuting frustrations. It'll be embarrassing if I'm the only one at NOAA who decided to stay at home....