Visitors Help us Have Fun
Last weekend we had 2 sets of friends from Corvallis visit. Robert and Jessica came out for an international motorcross race and Candice and Courtney came out for their grandmother's funeral. It was fun to see some sights with all of them and Eric was awesome for putting up with an apartment full of women on Sunday morning - 4 talkative ladies and 2 of the sweetest babies.

Wednesday I met a friend from childhood, Jess, and her inlaws at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. I especially liked the dolphin show and the poison dart frogs. So much to see and do! Come visit us!

Urban Life in the Woods
We are lucky to live only 1.5 blocks from a trail that takes us into Rock Creek Park. Rock Creek Park is a National Park that is twice the size of Central Park (NY) and connects to other parks in surrounding states. We can take a trail through the park from the National Zoo into West Virginia! Today in the park I felt like I was back in Oregon except with different trees and a few urban forest noises - landmower, airplane, slight hum from traffic. Then we met a high school track team. So much for solitude! I don't think Molly minded - she was happy chasing squirrels.

Urban Life

This is a picture of our building. Our apartment includes all of the windows on the second floor on the right. It is taking some time to get used to sharing walls with neighbors again. I think our upstairs neighbor was awake and walking around all night.
We had a pleasant trip across the country and were able to see family and friends along the way. The drama came when we were moving furniture into the apartment. We garage-saled most of our furniture in Corvallis and the only piece that came with us that I really cared about was the couch. Well, the movers tried and tried but couldn't get it through our apartment door. Eric was ready to pull the upholstery off and cut up the couch to get it in but the movers suggested taking it through a window. And that is what they did! The window on the right just above the building front door worked great. It was very exciting and I thought about documenting it with pictures but decided against it in case something went wrong (what evidence?). I guess urban movers deal with this kind of thing all the time but it was one for the memory book for me!

We're Famous

Eric's dad sent us a news clipping from their local paper in Salmon, Idaho (written by grandpa Bob). Besides being pretty cool, it pretty much sums up our lives so I thought I'd share.

Dr. E Toman

Success! I denfended my dissertation at the beginning of August and am now just working on the final edits. I can't believe that I have finally finished my education. It has been a long process and I have loads of people to thank for getting me this far. We had a BBQ the evening after the defense. My parents, Tim and Paige were in town and I had friends from all over come in. It was great to have the original "estrogen lab" back together. Debbie flew in from Kansas, Erica came down from Olympia, Kristin from Molalla, and Kami moved back to Corvallis just in time. We all worked for Arne as grad students/research assistants the first year I was at OSU. In the 6 years since, there have been 3 weddings and 5.5 kids :). Thanks to all to played a role in my success and to those who came to celebrate with us!

Back Online and in DC

Hello all! We have had a crazy whirlwind month but are happy to report that we made it across the country, finally have internet, and are slowly digging out of boxes. Much has happened since the last post so I'll add a few posts today/this week and try to get updated. Eric started work last week and really likes it. He is doing a fellowship sponsered by AAAS (society that publishes Science journal). This program matches up PhD scientists with federal agencies to involve more science in policy-making and allow the academics real-life exposure to policy-making. He has been placed with NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association) in their climate programs office. Specifically, he will be working on the US Climate Change Report. This is a very timely subject and he is excited to be in on the ground level and hopefully travel to international climate change summits.
I'm hanging out in our tiny apartment, trying not to go crazy with all the moving details and working on the final edits of my dissertation.
We are only here for a year - so come visit! There is so much to do and see in DC and we'd love to have visitors!