New York is a wonderful town!

The Pontifical Chorale from Corpus Christi Cathedral was invited to sing in New York this summer. I went and Jen came along as my 'roomie'! We had a fabulous six days of sight seeing, shows and eating as we made our way through tons of cannoli, pasta, cheesecake and many other assorted goodies! We also walked and walked and walked -- so our no carb left behind tour did little to our behinds! Here are some pics of the city - there will be a blog to follow regarding the singing and the cathedrals....

All the news thats fit to print...


The first Broadway show we saw was "Wicked". It was a good warm-up, but the cannoli and gelato on Broadway afterwards ROCKED!


World's Largest Kiss!


We stayed four blocks from Times Square - an amazing place!


More Times Square:


Wall Street


Breakfast...at a french place...outside...on Broadway. IT WAS SOOOO YUMMY!


Walking in downtown Manhattan....


Jen and Sponge Bob!


The largest Macy's in the world...yes we were EXCITED!


And yes, she made a purchase. We had a blast!


Lunch time!


Ground Zero


The Freedom Building by Ground Zero. Amazing place... those Palm Trees are growing INSIDE. You have several vantage points in there to see the building that is being done at Ground Zero.


Sign inside the Freedom Building:



Fountains at Lincoln Center. We had an insider tour - another amazing place.




We went via ferry to Liberty Island and Ellis Island:








Happy Girls!


We saw three Broadway Shows - Wicked, Lion King and Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom remains my favorite - has been playing on Broadway for over 20 years. We loved it!



Six days of shopping and sightseeing...how to get everything home???


More to come!

Blog about a Blog

Remember this photo? It was taken at the Texas State Round Rock campus - you can read about that here. It seems a friend of a friend saw this blog and asked several people what they thought the cloud represented. These are the real, authentic answers that I received regarding this photograph:

Jacqueline 6 years old: Two windows. God is looking at who is being good and bad. God wants people to sit for a while in a thinking chair to remember the good and the bad things. We can no longer be babies.

Rosa 11 Years old: a building and two people looking out. I see Jesus writing over a table. Follow God’s Commandments. God wants us to think of what we have done. God is ready to give us good things after we think of the good and the bad things and we chose to do good. God is ready to receive our prayers; all we have to do is open our hearts, that is what the garage door means. So all this means that our happiness is in heaven. The window I see means that it is never too late to look at our life and reflect.

Raquel 48 years old:God wants people to reflect on the environmental damage that is caused to his celestial blanket.Also God wants us to reflect on our behavior and turn towards Him.

I see an adult talking to a child explaining the way to heaven. It is not time for you.

I see two windows, with light shining up to heaven.

I see a house with a garage door.
God is protecting His hidden valley from despair.

Alexis: 9 years old:I see God’s airplane. He is coming to gather His crop.

Chacho: 18 years old: Heaven’s doors are open for the whole world to receive his message. His living world is being poured out to all people and many will receive His blessings.

Sasha: 12 years old:Jesus is coming to fellowship with the owner of a house that has a garage door. God wants us to open our heart to His son Jesus.

Jacqueline: 6yrs. God wants to talk to Mary.


I was so touched by this -- I hope you have been too.

Two Colleagues Take On The Big Guns

Nature Publishing Group is a big gun. These guys publish Nature, a professional journal for science. You get in Nature, you're gonna be famous. The group also has other publications, including Nature Education, an online journal for college science students and faculty. My colleague Kevin Strychar, a coral reef ecologist, and I had an interesting conversation over a year ago concerning genetically modified foods and what his students thought about them -- a side note from his lecture one day. This little conversation turned into a research project to find out just what they did think about this topic. A survey was designed, permission to conduct research on our students obtained,classroom plans made, data collected and later, analyzed. "Great stuff!", we thought. "Let's submit to this Nature Education publication and see what happens". They accepted the article with our revisions!! Yay! Celebrations! Then, a week later, they UN-accepted it! NO FAIR we cried! So we wrote the top dogs and told them the error of the editor's ways. They saw this error, promptly corrected and it and here is the publication.

IT'S IN! WE ARE SUPER EXCITED!!!!! More info from this study coming as we continue analysis....stay tuned!