Eugene, Oregon is at 218 AQI right now. Anything above 200 is “very unhealthy” 😷

Bambi! 😍🦌

I’m pretty sure Phoebe the cat thinks we get half the baby equipment we do have so she has new and improved places to sit

Trip to the coast this weekend! Yaquina Head lighthouse, Newport Oregon Open image to see the paraglider 🪂

Decided today that we really wanted to swim in a lake instead of the city pool, drove a half hour, and ended up here! New local beach uncovered! 😍 Baker Bay, Dorena Lake, Oregon 🏊🏻‍♀️ (Side note- this east coaster will never get over how shoreline is all public here with nary a vacation house on them)

I won some ribbons at the county fair!!! 😎 My first time entering and I won $20 in prize money- I’m rich! 😅

Goddamn it’s beautiful here. Multnomah Falls, Oregon

Working on some proposals for the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa (deadline tomorrow). It forever makes me happy that instead of shying away from the name some astronomers said "screw that, we ARE gonna name our telescope after meerkats because life is more fun this way!" 🧪🔭

Oh, deer! 🦌

Fun talk yesterday up in McMinville to a high school summer science program! All about radio transients and even some radio astronomy cross stitch- look carefully at image 2 😅 McMinville is in wine country, so managed a wine tasting too post talk. The life of an astronomer is tough. 😎🍷 🔭🧪🎢

Bunny pillow done in time for the county fair. We’ll see if the judges like it! 🐰

🚨🚨🚨 Northern lights alert 🚨🚨🚨 Seeing some VERY faint aurora in Eugene, Oregon. If you’re further north than me especially, and under darker skies, take a look! 🔭🧪

Happy Canada Day! 🇨🇦🍁🦫 (Yes, I am also Canadian! It’s my secret superpower.)

Ok new record. The aisle at CVS that not only had Halloween stuff, the plates said “Give Thanks” only about 6 months into the future 🎃🦃

Look I made a bunny! 🐰 Japanese shashiko style

Celebrated 12 weeks with twins by climbing a mountain today! (Spencer Butte, Oregon) Nice to be back on the trails after about a year away 😎🏔️

An Oregon sunset 🩷 Venus is down to the right of the moon and Jupiter very close to the fir tree at right if you look really carefully

Ok this was more fun than I expected- our brewery tonight had dynamic pricing based off demand! With fake stock tickers running and everything! Talked to the owner and he was trying it out the first time. They had no idea if they’d make more $, were mainly hoping ppl might try different beers. 🍻📈

My boring and monotonous maternity leave continues 🍷 (No really, my first was born in October- really different to have a babies in springtime! Plus I live in Oregon, no winery lunch in New England)

It was 90F today in Eugene so we headed to the coast where it was 20F degrees cooler. First trip for the babies to see the ocean! (Or at least enjoy nature’s biggest white noise machine while napping on a foggy day…)

Solo parenting today so the twins and we went out for lunch by campus! Call me crazy but solo parenting w babies is easier in some ways than w others? Like if it’s all on you, you don’t need to consult w others and can be spontaneous

Strawberry picking today! Probably the sweetest strawberries you’ve ever tasted. 🍓

Today I decided to play around with Claude AI asking what statistical tests should I do on a simple data set and it happily gave me several I’d never heard of. But when I was like let’s unpack this it was like “actually this isn’t a good test at all!” 🧪

Nerd brag moment, I logged my 600th bird species today! Not the best photo but it was this white faced ibis at Fern Ridge Wildlife Area in Veneta, Oregon 🦉

Happy Memorial Day weekend! 😎

Sahalie Falls is also known as “the waterfall Sassy the cat went over in the Homeward Bound movie” if you’re from my generation 🐱

We have reached the “you can do what you like so long as you can take two sacks of potatoes there” stage of maternity leave, so time to introduce the twins to how pretty Oregon is! 🤩 Left: Sahalie Falls, right: Clear Lake

It’s official- starting this fall, we are officially the University of Oregon Department of Physics and Astronomy!!! 🤩🥳 🔭🎢

Timeline cleanse- a morning walk in the woods. Ridgeline trail, Eugene, Oregon

Springfield Springfield, it’s a helluva town! The school yard’s up and the shopping mall’s down!