Life of a Single Married Lady

Happy (late) Thanksgiving to you all! I hope your holidays have begun with delicious turkey and wacky but lovable family antics.  Wil, John IV, and I went down to St Joseph to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Tushauses and Duckworths this year! Wil's parents live on a river bluff with some great land and spectacular views, so we spent much of our time walking through the woods and burning brush piles. It was even in the 60s Fahrenheit our last full day there! Pretty good for the end of November. Wild turkeys pecking some Thanksgiving corn outside the house. We did not eat one of these on Thanksgiving, although we did eat a turkey that got to roam free and enjoy his life! Naturally, we made a trip to Kansas City for some culture and delicious food! We watched the Mizzou game and toured the Thomas Hart Benton house while we were there. Thomas Hart Benton was an American artist in the early- to mid-20th century, and is one of three well-known Midwestern "Regionalist" pa

Wil and I recently moved to Madison, WI, and we are loving it! Wil has promising job leads at a few very respectable establishments, and I'm working at the University with the Space Science and Engineering Center (sounds cool, right??), studying how satellites see snowfall at Earth's surface. The view from my office! Downtown Madison has the same feel as Ann Arbor, but the whole city is much better laid out (in my opinion) and therefore has little in the way of traffic. It's absolutely glorious. We're also on the hunt for a house, which has been a challenge in compromise. Wil and I agree on almost everything we want in a house, but the housing market here doesn't agree with our budget! Even so, I think we'll find a great first home in the next year or two. Madison is the capitol of Wisconsin. From April to November a huge farmers' market surrounds the whole capitol square! The "Urban Target" here has an escalator for your carts. Incre

Naples: 19-20 September Istanbul: 20-21 September The majority of our last couple days in Europe were spent on an airplane eating delicious, delicious Turkish Air food. We did make sure to see a few last exciting landmarks! Our first flight was out of Naples. We didn't spend much time in Naples itself, but we did visit Ercolano! Ercolano is an Italian city that houses the ruins of the city of Herculaneum, destroyed by pyroclastic flow from Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It's essentially a smaller version of Pompeii, and was a better use of our limited time in the area. Unlike Pompeii, many buildings in Herculaneum still possess their upper floors. The gorgeous frescoes, mosaics, and tile work on walls and floors are intact in many buildings. Even more incredibly, wooden roofs, beds, and beams survived, despite being buried in up to 50ft of volcanic debris. Herculaneum is great to visit if you have just a few hours (Pompeii takes all day). We walked along the original paved stree

Ah, the wonders of cool autumn Michigan days! Wil and I made it home safe and sound, and now have only to worry about moving into our new home in a few days. In the meantime I have just a couple more blog posts worth of pictures...here we go! We planned our final day in Rome so that we could concentrate on the Via Appia Antica, or ancient Appian Way. This is the road that began in 312 BC and extended 350 miles to Brindisi, in the heel of Italy's boot! This is the road on which Sparticus and his army were slaughtered in 71 BC! This is the road on which St Peter met Jesus, before returning to Rome for his martyrdom! This is the road to which Wil and I tried to walk from our apartment, and the reason we ended up hopelessly lost in ancient farmland! (We weren't lost. -Wil) Google Maps image of the Appian Way and associated regional park, which is the part of the picture not covered in city buildings. We walked around most of the northern and central parts of the park in this

I forgot to mention: we were in Rome 15-19 September. Our second full day was spent almost entirely in the Vatican City, the world's smallest and wealthiest nation. Tickets for the weekly papal audiences are free, and you just have to make sure to get there early so you can find a seat or standing position near a Popemobile aisle. Basically... WE SAW THE POPE WE SAW THE POPE!! He was on his Popemobile wheeling around the crowd. He looked so happy and friendly! He just wheeled on by! And he kissed a bunch of babies!! Most of them found their way back to their parents. After this overwhelmingly awesome experience, we had a group walking tour of the Vatican. Group tours in Rome are the way to go, because you get to skip the 500-person ticket lines. Scale model of Vatican City. Fun fact: it's a mostly walled city! The Vatican Museums comprise two long, long hallways filled with museum-worthy items, and some connecting passageways and courtyards in between. They als

There's so much to see and do in Rome that I'm splitting up the blog posts into the days we were here. Here's the first! Our first night in Rome we discovered a tiny pizza shop near our apartment. Nobody spoke English and a constant stream of locals came in and out to pick up dinner so we know we found something truly authentic! Our first full day, we went to scout out the Vatican and get tickets for the papal audience the next day (free!). St Peter's Basilica and Square are beautiful and enormous! Lots of sculptures and columns adorn the walls surrounding the Square. We also walked by the Castel Sant'Angelo: Hadrian's mausoleum turned papal fortress. There's a covered passageway connecting it to St Peter's! Woo-hoo, Vatican! St Peter's Basilica in the background, we're in the Square here. Castel Sant'Angelo from the Tiber River. After our scouting trip, we walked down through some of the old streets surrounding the Vatican and