January 10, 2025
Since my last update, we’ve had enough snow to make parking the car in town a necessity, which means we’ve been using the snowmobile. While it is fun, snowmobiles are also noisy and smelly—I feel like apologizing to nature every time we start it up. Wildlife sightings remain rare, but it’s clear they’re continuing their winter routines far from our curious eyes.
December brought us a quintessential “cabin-in-the-woods” adventure. One of our outdoor faucets, connected to a plastic pipe, burst in the cold and completely drained our massive water tank—likely around 1,000 gallons, though I’m not entirely sure. When we returned from our weekly grocery run, the tank was empty, and only a tiny trickle of spring water was refilling it. Lucas spent an entire day increasing the flow, and to reward ourselves, we visited Broadwater Hot Springs in Helena. The heated pools and proper showers felt like pure luxury. A few days of hauling water jugs later, we finally had cold water again, followed by hot water shortly thereafter. Needless to say, the other outdoor faucets are now thoroughly insulated against the cold!
On a more professional note, I’m thrilled to share that I was officially hired as a Senior Research Analyst! Starting January 17, I’ll be diving into the world of user data analysis for Gemini, Google’s AI. After months of job applications with little to no response, a friend tipped me off about this opportunity before it was even posted. I prepared extensively for the interview and, despite my reservations about how the process unfolded, I’m deeply relieved to have secured a stable income. For the first time ever, I’ve been hired specifically for my PhD expertise.
Marcel the Bus Update
Lucas is hard at work designing the interior of the space. It’s a process that requires a great deal of time, effort, and thoughtful planning, but I think we’ve finally landed on a layout that will suit our needs perfectly. With the layout decided, I’m thrilled to start diving into the fun part—thinking about the interior design!
Glimmers
🥂 Having friends over for a good meal and firecrackers to celebrate the new year.
🎿 Our first cross country skiing loop around the property.
A few things I’ve enjoyed lately
Making Kenji Lopez’s super simple but delicious garlic noodles.
The Dollop history podcast with comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds. A recent 2-part episode focused on complicated reporter Nelly Bly and it was super informative and a lot of fun as always.
Ijeoma Oluo’s Be a Revolution.
New Futurama episodes on Hulu.
May you be safe, loved, and find joy in 2025 ♥️ Lise
I love love love reading this. Will check out the podcast as well. Aaaand … congrats to the job. 😘