February in Atlanta

When I got back to home, I had almost 6 glorious weeks in Atlanta in a row, the longest since 2006!
Of course, I spent as much of it as possible with Ed. :) The first weekend I was back, we went to Seattle so he could meet my Grandma Thwing, my Uncle Ted and Aunt Cathy, and Jay and Jennie. We had a terrific time! My Aunt Cathy picked us up from the airport and we had lunch, then Ed and I walked around downtown, took the monorail to the Space Needle (we have pictures at the top, but we both look like icicles), and then met Jennie for dinner.The next day, we took a Washington State Ferry ride with my Uncle Ted.....
and then went up to visit my grandmother, who is recovering from a hip fracture. She had been under the weather with a stomach bug going around the nursing unit, but was very cheerful and excited to see Ed!That night, we watched Jennie play hockey - she plays in a women's league.

The next day, Jennie, Ed, and I drove over Snoqualmie Pass to go snowshoeing - it had been closed for most of the past week due to record snow falls, and there were 6 feet of new snow. Ed had never gotten to really play in snow before, and had a blast!
Ready to set out!
Oh, the fun of gloves!
Ed having fun off the trailWhat a winter wonderland!

Workwise, I scrambled to get the protocol for the Angola survey finished, submitted, and approved, all the supplies ordered, the questionnaire programmed into PDAs, and finally, all of this packed in time to actually do the survey.

A Senegalese colleague from the malaria branch and I had been planning to host a Senegalese dinner for the branch for several months, and were finally able to pull it off. One of his friends catered, my friend Meredith hosted, and I just coordinated on email. :) It was so much fun!Serigne in Senegalese attire...And malaria branch colleagues enjoying it!


And last but not least, Ed agreed to let my cat, Rocky, stay at his house during my month long absence in March, so we gave the cats (his two and my one) a weekend play date at his house to see how they would do. This is apparently the closest they ever got without hissing :) Mine is the handsome black and white cat. :)