Still Living

"No TV for a week"

2011-01-24T09:28:00.002-07:00

On coming home from a week spent working with some research colleagues, my husband was inspired by one of them to decrease our TV watching at home. His colleague has a few kids (ranging in age from 7 to 16) and apparently they don't even own a television. The kids are smart, savvy and successful and don't even miss watching TV. Apparently they have plenty of other things to do, like art and science projects, reading, etc.

Starting yesterday we are implementing a "No TV for a week" 6-week plan. It's going to be 1 week on, 1 week off. So for this week (Sunday to Sunday) we can't watch any TV. Next week we can choose to watch TV if we want, but the week after it is mandatory no TV. I am actually looking forward to this! Especially when my husband is away I tend to watch movies for no particular reason, when I could easily be doing something else more enriching. My plan for tonight is to bake a pear-and-chocolate cake and do a yoga practice. That sounds better than watching TV for a couple hours.

For my daughter I think it will be a little more difficult. She's only 4, but she often wants to decompress by sitting and staring at Angelina Ballerina for half an hour. But, she made it through the day yesterday, and even helped her dad make dinner instead of watching something! We will see how it goes for her on the no TV weeks...

Sick at home

2010-11-17T16:00:00.002-07:00

My daughter Z has been sick for the past two days. She had a fever so we kept her home and I took her to the doctor, who gave her antibiotics and said she probably has bronchitis. Her illness isn't too bad; today she hasn't had a fever and she isn't coughing all the time. But, she has to stay home anyway until 24 fever-free hours are logged.

I have had to work and of course my husband has as well, but he works from home so he has gotten stuck with Z. Yesterday afternoon she napped and then watched Rainbow Brite. This morning apparently she played with her bead set for nearly two hours, and after lunch she colored for again approximately two hours. Now I'm home to allow D to work and she is sacked on the couch! What is with this girl? She's the most non-rowdy kid I think I've ever seen. True, she is sick, but she commonly can sit for an hour or more with something small like coloring or dolls. I'm continually amazed at her attention span.

Coming back to life

2010-11-16T16:07:00.002-07:00

It has been a very long time since I have written anything in any blog. I feel like I really ought to be keeping track of things going on, if not for me then for my daughter when she grows up. So, here I am, still living. This blog is really for no-one but me, but if somebody reads it that's ok.

On the lighter side

2008-02-22T14:28:00.002-07:00

If you read this blog you may have noticed that I haven't posted here in a while. Well, I've decided this blog is too dark for me. Not dark as in gothic or even angry or ill-tempered. It is just rooted in layers of me that I'm shedding now. I'm changing yet staying the same at once. So, I've moved my blog here. If you like, continue reading my new stuff! :)

Battlefield Earth

2008-01-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

I recently finished reading Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard, and I thought I'd make a few comments here. This isn't a "review" and I'm not going to summarize or explain the book. I'm just going to say what I liked and didn't like. I thought this was a great scifi novel, full of action and adventure. It took me nearly 6 months to read! (It takes me longer to read most books because I don't spend very much time at it.) I enjoyed all the action, and also how the book was split into small chapters, which made it very easy to read in short bursts. All the essential events and characters were easy to remember, and everything made sense throughout the book. There wasn't too much characterization in the book, all the characters were fairly simple. The plot was much more focused on the action and the flow towards the climax. The story was easy to follow throughout and the conflicts and resolutions were clear.

I didn't like how the book slowed at the very end. After the second climax I was sure the book would be over! I also didn't like how Hubbard sometimes invented a new thing seemingly at random to explain something (e.g. the Psychlo doctors at the end of the book). These things would have been more believable had he hinted about them earlier in the story.

Overall I thought it was an excellent book.

Too young?

2007-12-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

This morning on NPR, Morning Edition featured a story about "Generation Next". Basically, people within the 18-25 year age range do not consider themselves adults and are not usually considered adults by their own parents. Many want to have careers and want to wait to get married and settle down to have a family.

When I hear things like this it stirs up some interesting emotions. I was 18 when I got engaged to my now-husband. We got married two days before my 21st birthday. I had my baby girl about a month before I turned 24. I've heard it said that we were too young, especially for marriage. Well, we've been together for over 7 years total and we're still enjoying each other. I have met a couple of people my age who are astonished at my "way of life" and family, and say "My gosh, I can't even imagine being married/having a kid at my age!" This reaction has always made me feel like an outsider.

So this morning's program got me thinking. Z's friends in school are all going to have older parents. Probably most will be 8 or 10 years older than my husband and I. I have a friend who is 34 and her son is now almost 8 months old. My best friend is 26 and her kids (she's not having any yet) will be at least 3 years younger than Z.

I feel it's great if 18-25 year olds don't need to take on the real responsibilities of the world, so they don't yet feel like adults. I'm sure we'll still be helping Z if she needs it, and I don't want her to feel like she's being pushed into being a "grown-up". Yet I also feel like an outsider when I think about how many people out there my age are so different from me. I always felt compelled to settle down and have a family. Not from the outside, but from the inside. I wanted it.

My own father was 36 when I was born. My mom was 30. Growing up, I felt like my mom could understand my situation better, maybe because she was younger. So I wanted to be closer in age to my own children. Thinking about that now, I can look at things in another way. My father was born in 1946. His parents were "traditional". He was raised differently than my mom. Now I think he was less approachable and understood me less when I was growing up because he had a different perspective of me. He thought "children should be this way" and "growing up should be this way" and it wasn't the same for me. My mom had a more open mind and could see more things my way. I bet that many more parents of 18-25 year olds now have more open minds and in that way can remain closer to their children. And their children don't feel the need to push away.

All that said, I am very happy with my life and my family. I wouldn't trade any of it for a career or a chance to travel more or whatever. I like it just the way it is.

This is the stuff dreams are made of

2007-12-01T12:18:00.001-07:00

We got our Christmas tree yesterday! The first time we've ever gotten it before December. We put it up and put the lights on it last night and Z helped me decorate it this morning. She had so much fun at the tree place yesterday afternoon. She was running around and playing with everyone there and she helped pick out the tree. It was so wonderful to see her enjoying herself. I love it.

Potato soup even my toddler likes!

2007-11-28T17:44:00.000-07:00

Caution: this is not necessarily a toddler-friendly recipe! My girl isn't a very picky eater. But we all think this soup is yummy. And it's filling!

Saute in a heavy pot:
1 medium onion
3 stalks celery, finely chopped (include leaves)

Add and cook until tender:
3 medium potatoes (or 2 large), peeled and diced
3-4 cups water or stock
salt and pepper to taste
1 small bay leaf

Let cool briefly. While stirring with a wire whisk, add:
1 cup instant dry milk
1-2 tablespoons butter

Reheat but do not boil. Add salt and pepper to taste and garnish with parsley or green onions.

Yoga is awesome!

2007-11-27T08:31:00.000-07:00

I started doing yoga seriously about a month ago. I'd been wanting a "fitness program" that fit into my life better than my "weight loss program". I just couldn't see waking up at 6am almost every day for the rest of my life and popping in a workout DVD. So, I decided to try the yoga.

At first I was pretty inflexible and stiff. But now, even just a month after starting, I can do an *almost* perfect shoulderstand! And in just a couple of weeks I've gotten so much better at the plough and the forward bends. After a session I feel renewed and energized. And so far at least it has fit into my life very well, much better than the workouts I lost the motivation to do.

Happy belated Halloween

2007-11-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

I know all the Halloween posting is through, but I didn't get a chance to get in on it! My little Z was a bunny this year. Her costume was made by my mother, who used to make me an awesome costume every year. We went to the Emerson and got some candy and had a good time.

Gifty Meme!

2007-10-30T10:15:00.000-06:00

In continuing a tradition from Amelie, I have joined in the gifting circle. If you are in the first 5 to comment on this blog post I will send you a gift by the end of the year! And if you are one of the 5, you must offer the same to your readers.

Approaching the pre-pregnancy weight!

2007-10-28T14:48:00.000-06:00

Finally, 16 months after Z was born, I am approaching my pre-pregnancy weight. Since July I've passed over into the "healthy weights" on the BMI charts. Basically for my height any weight under 155 is considered healthy. And, since August I've been fitting into ALL (or almost all) of my clothes! I'm still aiming to lose another 10 pounds, and I'm still exercising and trying to be fit, but I'm pleased with my success.

I have this neato chart I made after tracking my weight since January. In January both my husband and I kept meticulous track of our weight several times a day, to see the natural "error" in the measurement (1). The variation is up to 5 pounds in any given day. Then I started weighing myself only once or twice a day. There is a break of a couple of weeks during July (2) when we went on vacation, and (3) marks exactly 1 year after Z was born. I was just over 155 pounds - 10 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight, which was 145. Since September I've plateaued around 150, but I think I'm still losing weight more slowly, although I haven't been keeping track as well the last few weeks.

Wine Tasting and Chocolate Truffles

2007-10-20T19:57:00.000-06:00

We were invited to a wine tasting on Friday night. It was a trip through French and Californian Pinot Noir's - our host said he was serving the best in the world. They were very tasty. We started with a 1998 and finished with a 2005. My husband has a list but it's not here so I won't tell you the exact wines. It was a fun party. We even got to bring home a bit of wine.

Everyone was requested to bring an appetizer of sorts. Many people brought cheeses and that sort of thing. I was addicted to the Champagne Cheddar. We decided to make chocolate truffles! What an experience. Very messy. But lots of fun! We started on Wednesday evening by making the chocolate, and we rolled the truffle balls on Friday afternoon. Please enjoy the recipe and the pictures...

1/2 lb semisweet chocolate
1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
2 tablespoons coffee liqueur
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup cocoa powder

Coarsely chop both chocolates and set aside.
Heat the cream and instant coffee in a large saucepan, stirring to blend. When bubbles start to form along the edge of the pan, remove from heat. Scatter the chocolate over the cream, stirring gently until melted. Set aside for 8-10 minutes.
Add the liqueur and vanilla. Stir gently, just until evenly blended. Scrape the chocolate into a shallow bowl. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 4 hours and up to 1 week.
Take chocolate out of the refrigerator a few hours before you plan on making the truffle balls. (We didn't do this and had to figure out how to get the chocolate to room temperature quickly. A difficult task! But it is much easier to make balls with warmer chocolate).
Using a teaspoon or melon baller, scoop up enough chocolate to make balls approximately 1-inch in diameter. Place balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate 15 minutes.
Roll the balls in cocoa, shaking off excess, and transfer to wax paper until ready. Best when served at room temperature.

We made some truffles in simply cocoa powder, some in a mixture of cinnamon and cocoa powder and some in a mixture of cayenne pepper and cocoa powder. All were very good but the spicy ones had quite a kick! My favorite were the cinnamon.

MMM, chocolate tastes yummy!

My legs hurt!

2007-10-19T10:07:00.000-06:00

I appreciate flat shoes. I'm not a heels kind of girl. I hadn't worn shoes with a higher heel in months, until yesterday. I wore my Doc Martens with a 1.5-inch heel. I walked to and from work like I usually do. Now my calves hurt. Bummer.

Well, here I am

2007-10-18T09:21:00.000-06:00

From June to October... Quite a hiatus. During my "time off" I thought about starting an entirely new blog, and maybe quitting blogging altogether. I got more involved in the "friends" sites, especially Facebook. I considered writing in my old blog a few times, when I was particularly moved by something. But I would always think, "Is blogging THAT important to me? Do I NEED it?"

So what now? I've decided to keep blogging as much as I can/want to. I am kept pretty busy by my family and all that of course. Blogging to me takes a secondary role to the rest of my life. I've tried to change things around so my blog is more "me" and also more indefinite. For example, we won't live in Montana forever. In fact, we won't be living in Montana at this time next year(hopefully)! My blog should easily move with me or I won't write in it. And the purpose is to write. I'm also not an academic anymore, at least at the moment. I'm a full-time mom with a job that pays the rent. I don't know if I will go back into academia. It all depends on a myriad of things that happen in the future.

Retooling the blog

2007-06-07T11:01:00.001-06:00

I haven't been able to blog about anything. Some things I thought about seemed out of place on my blog. Then I couldn't think of anything that would fit in! Now, this is stupid. I mean, a blog should be a place you're comfortable writing whatever you want to write about. If you specifically want to write about a certain subject, then you base your blog on that. Some people write about everything. Well, I didn't feel like I could write about *anything*. I felt that my blog didn't belong anywhere. It used to be a mostly academic blog. Now I'm not a grad student anymore. It could be a mommy blog, but sometimes I don't want to blog about mommy stuff. Although that is my life. I just don't want to be pigeonholed into a space where I don't feel I can write anything!

So I'm trying to put another new face on my blog. One I can be happy with. I apologize to those of you who may still read my blog from the academic days. I'm trying to find myself a bit right now, so my blog is going through that with me I guess.

Goodbye Grandma!

2007-04-18T19:18:00.001-06:00

My grandmother passed away on Monday. She was 96 years old. She lived quite a full life and died peacefully.

I'm taking Z down to the funeral. It involves a 2-leg flight there and another to get back home. We're leaving Saturday afternoon, getting in at about 8:30, the funeral is Monday morning, and we're coming home on Wednesday afternoon. A quick trip. We will see my parents, my cousin, my aunt and uncle, and maybe my other aunt and cousin. My husband and I had a long discussion last night about whether or not I should go, and take Z. I feel like it is a good thing to do. He said he couldn't physically or mentally do it. Taking Z is too much trouble for him. Heck, he has problems taking her to the grocery store! So he wouldn't. She and I have an easier time doing things like that together. I've traveled with her alone before and it was no big deal. She is more interactive now, and the flights may be a bit more of a hassle, but I bet it will all work out fine.

The best reason though, for all this rushing around and hubbub, is that gram would have liked to know that the family was getting together. All of us, especially Z. So here's to my grammie, I hope you have fun in heaven with gramps again.

New me

2007-04-18T09:43:00.001-06:00

I got a haircut yesterday. It's short. I like short hair. Especially on me. I think I've realized that my hair is meant to be short. It will grow out, but it takes FOREVER. And my hair is very fine, so when it is long, it doesn't do much. It won't hold long layers, so mostly I wear it back. What's the point? I had short hair in high school, and I was kind of punkrock. I cut my hair short again right before I got pregnant, and I decided to let it grow when a little girl at a museum didn't know I was a woman ("what lady?"). But it had been taking forever and ever to grow. I've had it with limp boring hair! So it is much shorter again, and I can put the putty stuff in it and spike it up and all! I love it.

The last time I had short hair (just over a year ago) I also wasn't wearing any makeup. Now I think short hair looks great on girls with dark hair, but blondes need a bit of help. I'm very blond. You can't see my eyebrows or lashes on my face, they match very well with my skin tone. Lately I have been getting into wearing eye makeup again, like I did in high school. I went through this phase in college where I thought makeup was annoying and stupid. Now I see it as an accent to my features. I like wearing a bit of eye makeup because it makes me feel girlie. I am enjoying the more girlie feeling lately. So, short hair and eyes that stand out... the new me.

Work leads to babysitting!

2007-04-13T20:29:00.001-06:00

I'm very busy right now with work and baby and family! I am almost busier now than I ever was in grad school. Almost. But it's a good kind of busy. Not so many deadlines and I get to play with my kid!

Work is really picking up. I'm getting more and more tasks and organizing the lab more. It is really quite exciting! I enjoy my job. Especially when I see my name in a forwarded email from my boss, and it says "K is my part-time administrative assistant. She has taken on part of this project and has done a great job so far." The summer is always the busiest time around the lab, and summer starts in a month or so. We're planning a few new events this summer, and I'll be a part of it all.

And for work I have to attend a meeting on Tuesday, and my husband has to be there as well, so it will be the first time we've left Z with a sitter (that wasn't family) when she was not asleep! She's 9.5 months old and I don't know if I'm ready for this! I know she probably is. Her sitter is my good friend, and we've all hung out a lot so Z knows her already. They've played a bit together. But she'll have to get her snack and play, all while mommy AND daddy aren't there! Goodness! (When I visited my parents this February I left Z with them for a couple of hours and she was fine. So I know I'm worried about nothing. It's one of those mommy things.)

Garden planning, cloth diapers, etc.

2007-03-31T21:22:00.000-06:00

Today we got together with our buddies with whom we are going to garden this summer. We're looking forward to having a garden plot and fresh veggies all summer! Our friends have done it before and know something about the tricks of the trade, so we're planning with them, and we're going to get two 20'x20' plots next to one another, so we'll have a real small kitchen garden going! Z and I are going to be out there weeding with Mar practically every day. It'll be great experience for all of us. And, yes, daddy is going to garden too. It's actually mostly his pet project. Z and I are kind of "hired help". We're going to even try to grow a couple of watermelons specifically bred for colder climes! I'll keep you posted on that once summer starts.

We've been using cloth diapers for a little more than a month now, and it's going great! Yes we still have some leaks. It is a bit difficult to switch from disposable to cloth, but we still think it's the best thing. We bought some bigger hemp inserts for at night because Z was soaking through all the others. She still pretty much soaks the bigger ones, but at least she doesn't over soak them and leak out, most of the time. Most of our leak problems happen during the day now, and I think it's a fit problem actually. Or just the fact that we may not change her quite often enough. You do have to change cloth diapers significantly more often than disposables. But it is so much better for baby's skin. We just have to get used to that. We've seen many more changing tables at stores and restaurants than we had seen previously. Thankfully it's easy to change Z. Even with all the leaks, wetness, and crying in the morning every once in a while, I love cloth diapers. It doesn't use too much water, and we have had significantly less trash since we switched. I would recommend it to anyone! And if we have another baby, we'll definitely start them in cloth.

Tomorrow we're planning an exciting outing to the hotsprings! We've been before, but the last few times Z wasn't very into playing or anything. She just sat and stared. Last time we went daddy dunked her, and she did fine with that, but she still was pretty passive. This was in January. Now that she's 9 months old (!) she is much more interactive and awake for longer periods of time. I really think she'll have lots of fun in the pool this time. Hopefully all goes well.

The Amazing Crawling Baby!

2007-03-29T20:17:00.000-06:00

Z just got the hang of moving forward on all fours a couple of days ago. It's so cool! Yes, we have to childproof stuff still and we have to watch her like a hawk to make sure she doesn't get into something, but it is still so awesome.

Sugar in baby food

2007-03-23T08:35:00.000-06:00

I get a newsletter by email from BabyCenter, and this week there was a short bit about feeding your baby foods with added sugar. You're not supposed to! This didn't come as a surprise to me. But I have been upset in the past at the availability of certain baby foods without added sugar!

I've spent quite a bit of time staring at the baby food at the grocery store, trying to find something new to feed Z. I decided I wouldn't feed her strained meat, so all the chickens, turkeys and lambs were out. She had tried nearly all of the rest of the available fruits and veggies, and all that was left was desserts! DESSERTS! Why does an 8- or 9-month-old need to eat dessert? And I did check the ingredients, and many of these desserts contained added sugar. I have no idea why anyone would want to give their baby extra sugar.

This all lead me to begin making my own baby food. I make most of the food that Z eats - my own sweet potatoes, yams, green beans, apricots, prunes, peas, black beans, applesauce... I feel good that she's not getting any refined sugar, and that I know the steps that her food has gone through (to a certain degree... I didn't grow it myself... yet. This summer I will be giving her some fresh garden food).

By the way, high nitrate foods shouldn't be home prepared before your baby's about 8-months old. High-nitrate vegetables include beets, carrots, green beans, squash, turnips, spinach and collard greens.

Books we've read

2007-03-22T21:16:00.000-06:00

Since I was pregnant with Z, my husband and I have been reading books together, and once Z was born we read with her. I'm talking about novels, not kids books. When I was pregnant we'd read at bedtime. Once Z was born, we'd read just about every time I was breastfeeding. We are continuing to read, now only during the bedtime breastfeeding. We've read quite a few books that way, and I wanted to note them all so I will never forget.

While I was pregnant we read some Sherlock Holmes stories, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and From the Earth to the Moon (both by Jules Verne). Then we started David Copperfield, which we were reading when Z was born.

We've read The Great Train Robbery (Crichton), The Wizard of Oz (Baum), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain), Robinson Crusoe (Defoe), A Christmas Carol (Dickens), and Around the World in 80 Days (Verne) with Z, since she was born. We're in the middle of Wuthering Heights (Bronte). We may stop after this one, but probably not. I'm not sure what's up next though.

email blog test

2007-03-21T21:43:00.001-06:00

I would enjoy not having to rely on the speediness of blogger, so I am testing this email for posting.

I guess I better change my blog

2007-03-21T21:32:00.000-06:00

... since I'm not going to be a grad student any more. So much for life in graduate school! Maybe, life while your husband's in graduate school? No, too boring. Maybe life in a small corner of Montana... That may be better overall since I didn't write too much about grad school in the first place.

I met with my advisor today and she asked for a notebook of all my data, and my excel files. She uses them sometimes in publications down the road. So now I have to collect that stuff for her. That's easier than working on a manuscript at this point. She also offered me work. Either field work in the summer or fall, or lab work starting whenever. I am happy with my job now and busy enough that I told her no for the time being. At least until the end of the summer. We're traveling a lot this summer anyway, so working for her wouldn't fit in. I just don't know if I really want to do the lab work right now. I talked to my husband and a field trip in September isn't out of the question. Is a 14 or 15-month-old too young to do field work? In this line of research, probably. We'd have to bring some friends I guess. We'll see what I feel like at the start of the fall semester, but I might work a bit for her. It depends on my other job too. But right now I have more than enough to keep me busy for 15 to 20 hours a week.

Z is my daughter

2007-03-21T21:26:00.000-06:00

She is so precious. It is wonderful watching a child grow. I just had to hold her for a few minutes, maybe some stomach pain, and she was sleeping in my arms. She hasn't done that for a while now. The last time was probably on the plane back from visiting my parents in early February. The only time she really cuddles and nestles into me is when she's really tired, and mostly she's in bed and sleeping by then, so those times are few and far between. They're lovely when they happen.

Can't post to my blog!

2007-03-13T21:14:00.000-06:00

Arrgh. I have another blog and I can't post to it! Annoying! So I have to write something!

I'm done with school now, I have been since January. I officially graduate in May with my M.S. I'm not attending graduation though. It's no big deal to me. I'm supposed to be working on publishing, but I haven't done a thing! Well, I did email the editor of a journal to see if my work would fit in. It won't. I should be fixing up my figures for publication, and cutting out superfluous stuff from my text. But, really, I'd rather not. I know I am displaying terrible work ethic. I am having such a good time not having homework! I do work part-time to get some extra money, and I enjoy that job immensely. But I love not having to bring it home unless I want to. I work on website stuff from home quite often, especially when I can get exciting things done in short amounts of time. But at night, I usually sit down with my book for a while. I am just screaming through books now that I don't have schoolwork! It took me nearly a year to read War and Peace, and now I'm halfway through a book that is just as long, in only 1.5 months! I love it. So no, I'm not even tempted to work on anything serious in my nightly free time. I know, I know.

By the way, I have decided NOT to pursue a Ph.D. in my field. I'm 95% sure I won't get a Ph.D. in any field. This doesn't discount the possibility of more schooling, just not toward the doctorate of philosophy. I won't say any more at this time because I haven't decided anything concrete yet.

I like web stuff

2007-03-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a new website for the lab I work for. I really enjoy working on websites. Ever since I first tried, which was in college. We're using MediaWiki to build the website, in hopes of sometime in the future merging a public wiki with our internal wiki. It is so easy to work with, and there is a lot of helpful online documentation. I don't think it will take as long as I projected at first.

Cloth Diapers

2007-02-27T12:20:00.000-07:00

Well, in a whirlwind we decided to change to cloth diapers. We had been thinking about how wonderful it would be to not always be throwing away oddles of diapers in plastic bags, littering the landfills of Montana (we switched our kitchen trash to paper bags). I was leery of prefolds and pins though. Well, during my research for my budget post, I talked to a friend that uses cloth diapers. She pointed me to a couple of websites, and I saw the light. Cloth diapers are nothing like I thought!

We bought some pocket diapers from Montana's Diaper Store. We actually went to the physical store, which ended up being a great trip. After looking at cloth diapers online all weekend I still wasn't sure what to get! So we went to the store and they helped us pick the right diapers for us. We're using the Pocket Change cloth diapers. They are working great so far!

Wrong again

2007-02-27T09:29:00.000-07:00

I thought it was spring, but it's not. It is still definitely winter. It snowed about 6 inches on Friday, and it is forecast to snow every day this week. I guess I just have to wait longer for the nice warm weather.

The baby budget

2007-02-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

One of my friends is considering getting pregnant. She wanted to know about how much we spend per month on Z's stuff, like diapers, etc. I went a little overboard and tried to estimate everything for her. Here is the email I wrote:

Remember, if you get pregnant I'm sure people are going to help you out a little. I'm sure the grandparents will buy some clothes and especially other little things too, and of course you'll have a shower and get gifts there. And we have some stuff you can have like our newborn tub. So, you won't have to buy absolutely everything yourselves.

The initial costs are the biggest. Getting set up with a nice crib will be between $300 and $500. A good carseat will cost you at least $150 (and don't buy a used one of these! You want something new). Other baby furniture such as a dresser or changing table may be unnecessary but if you want it you may pay a lot, maybe over $500. We bought ourselves a dresser and gave Z my old one, at a cost of about $200. You probably also want to get a baby carrier or two, and those range from about $30 to over $100. The baby backpack comes later, and I saved up for that one and I bought the cadillac for $240. You will also need some layette items like swaddling blankets, onesies, clothes, burp cloths, etc. I don't think we bought any of these for ourselves. But if you do, I would expect to pay in excess of $100 depending on what you get.

Of course there are also the doctor's costs. These vary depending on your insurance, but I can tell you we paid $750 for my doctor, and the overall total (including the $750) was about $3000.

Now the monthly expenses... These change as your baby gets older. I have been breastfeeding and it is cheaper than formula feeding. Yes you do eat more food, but adult food can be less expensive than lots of formula. Now that I breastfeed and give Z formula, we're paying about $20 a month for formula. But this can be way more expensive if you are exclusively formula feeding. Think maybe $120 a month... And once your baby starts solids, you can expect to pay about $30 a month for babyfood jars (between 6 and 8 months).

For diapering, we use disposable diapers. I have seen websites that say to estimate your diaper use at 70 per week. I don't know if we ever used that many! Realistically now we use about 40 diapers per week. We're not changing freaks, and we use diaper cream and Z has never had a rash. We pay about $50 a month for diapers. This gets a bit more expensive as the baby gets older too, but slowly. Wipes are cheap, they cost us less than $20 a month, and other diapering supplies like cream cost us maybe $4 a month.

Now for my speech on how to save money. :)
I have bought many things on ebay. Z's bouncy chair, kick-gym, and lots of clothes. Buying baby clothes on ebay is awesome. I always look for lots with several pieces. The last lot I bought was 6-12 month stuff, and I got name-brand clothes like Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren and Children's Place. I got ~20 pieces for ~$20. WAY cheaper than buying anything at any store. Especially the nice name-brand stuff which costs ~$15 for a onesie. So don't be afraid to look for stuff on ebay! Everything I've gotten was in great condition. People selling baby clothes do seem to be truthful about the condition, and seem to not sell really crummy stuff. A couple of things I got had some spots, but you expect those in used baby clothes. Sometimes you just can't keep them clean. We also bought our baby monitor at the thrift store here, so it cost us $2.50. It is old and kind of crummy, but it works! And we could have paid upwards of $40 for a new one. I know you guys go to the thrift stores so look there for baby stuff. Some things I personally wouldn't buy used, mostly for safety's sake. Like you want a new carseat. Unless you get one from a friend and you're sure it's never been in an accident. We're probably going to get our front-facing seat from my friend S. But I wouldn't just buy one. I also saved up for the backpack, because I want something that can take a lot of wear and tear from me. I know it'll be well used so I didn't want one that was already well used.

In my initial email I forgot to mention nursing bras ($15 to $40 a piece - I have 6), maternity clothes (I think I spent about $150 but you can spend way more), the boppy (an essential for us! - ~$20), the Bumbo chair (super cool - $30), and crib bedding (we got ours handed down, but I think it can be up to $200).

If there are any ammendments or additions to my list, please leave a comment!

In the wink of an eye

2007-02-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

My baby is growing up before my eyes. It is so amazing, and a little sad. I remember when she was the teeny baby we brought home from the hospital. She couldn't do a thing then, except cry, poop, nurse and sleep. She stared around once in a while when she was awake long enough.

Now she is starting to pull herself up from a sitting position. She really wants to walk. She loves it when we help her take small steps. She can't quite crawl yet, but she is almost there too. One of the nurses that sees her often thinks she might walk without even crawling. I didn't think so until today when I really payed attention to her walking attempts. Now I think she may just be right. Amazing.

Z is also starting to want to relax more in her crib, instead of in my arms. She has a stuffed frog that I started giving her as a sort of "transitional" object. I brought him with to my parent's house to have something in her "crib" that reminded her of home. While we were there she seemed to get attached to him (we call him Ringo), and so when we got home I decided to keep putting him in the crib with her. She likes to grab him and cuddle with him during the night and during naps. In fact, having him has made her naps significantly longer. Where she was sleeping about 40 to 50 minutes before she is now sleeping 1.5 to 2 hours! So now I can put her in her crib with Ringo when she is still fairly awake, and in minutes she is sound asleep with him in one arm or within close reach. It is sooooo sweet. It is also a little sad, because now there is something else comforting besides me or my breast. But, ah, she is growing. She definitely won't be my little baby forever.

New picture

2007-02-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

Some snow from our window.

Real good friends

2007-02-21T08:51:00.000-07:00

Over President's Day weekend we had one of our college friends stay with us for a couple of days. He works in California now and we hadn't seen him since the summer of 2004. We all had such a great time! Before he came I was planning a trip to Yellowstone one day, but then we decided that was too much hassle and we'd all just rather hang out. So that's what we did. He and my husband rented Metroid Prime Echoes and we all played that and Super Smash Brothers Melee. We went out to eat and we went and played a bit in the snow (since there's no snow where he lives in CA).

Most importantly, though, we laughed. We spent a few hours giggling. I don't even know what all we were laughing at, but whatever it was, it was funny. All three of us realized that we hadn't laughed like that in a long time. Years maybe. It felt good. And it made my husband and I think about how great it is to have friends like that. We haven't made any here at grad school.

Time off

2007-01-24T08:42:00.000-07:00

Since I turned in my thesis I haven't been blogging! I've been getting some r&r. I am still working part-time, and that has been nice because it provides me with a change of scenery, and keeps me busy for a little bit every day. But not too much. I'm really enjoying not having deadlines or big things hanging over my head!

I am going to submit my work to be published, either in Northwest Science or the Western North American Naturalist. My advisor and I are meeting tomorrow to talk about that. And as usual I have to submit two annual reports for my funding agencies. Both are not a big deal. The only other thesis related thing I have to get done soon is get some printed and bound copies for my committee, etc. I've been putting that off until I get back from visiting my parents.

Tomorrow...

2007-01-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

All I have to do is submit my signature forms to the grad college office and I have my master's degree. Woohoo!

This was the PhD comic on the day that my advisor gave me the OK to submit to the grad college. I have felt that way more than once during the whole thesis-writing process. I'm just glad it is over now.

Picture of the week!

2007-01-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

Happy new year! I got back from vacation a few days ago and I've spent most of the time feverishly getting my thesis ready for submission. It's ready now! I made it a pdf and everything! Tomorrow I'm going to email it to the lady at the grad school, and Tuesday I'm going over there to turn in the proper forms. HOW EXCITING!

This week's picture is from last January at Yerkes observatory in Wisconsin.

Picture of the new year

2006-12-31T20:34:00.000-07:00

This picture is of Langmuir Lab in New Mexico. We went to school in Socorro, so we used to hike in the Magdalena's all the time.

Six month update, part 2

2006-12-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

October, 2006
Our little three-month-old was getting more and more exciting. She could move around a lot by now, and she was starting to get the hang of her body a bit. This month we went to the pumpkin patch to get Halloween pumpkins. We also took an overnight trip to Helena to be houseguests at our friends' new house! Our second overnight trip, and much shorter than the trip to the Tetons. But it was a lot of fun. Z saw her first cats in Helena.

November, 2006
We went to a late Halloween party the first weekend in Nov, and Z dressed as a pumpkin. Aren't most little babies pumpkins? It is so cute though. We went back to Helena for a friend's birthday party the weekend before Thanksgiving. Another successful trip.

For Thanksgiving we had a couple of friends over. Z got some babyfood sweet potatoes. She seemed to enjoy them. We also began sitting her up with support during November. And she experienced her first really cold temperatures. The other exciting thing was her first trip to the hot-springs! We put her in a neato swim diaper and took her in a warm pool. She seemed to enjoy that too, but she doesn't react very strongly in any situation - she's a pretty passive kid.

December, 2006
This month we of course celebrated christmas. But we also celebrated mommy defending her thesis! Z was there for my talk and about half of the questions. Then she got a bit bored and dad took her home.

Z continues to get better and better at sitting up. We both think she'll be mobile soon, which means we'd better get off our own butts and childproof our house! She's becoming more vocal as well, and her laugh is the funniest thing. She kind of coughs out a belly laugh once in a while. Trust me, it is hilarious.

We had a wonderful christmas with lots of toys and new clothes for Z, and a few for us too! We had a lot of snow a few days after christmas, which I took Z out in. It was her first real snowstorm experience. No sledding yet though.

Looking back over the past 6 months, I realize that I don't remember all the gruesome details of the first couple of months, yet I seem to remember more specifics from early-on. I didn't really know what to write for the last three months! Z is growing as quickly as all babies do, and we see new stuff often, but I think my husband and I are getting used to seeing such new things, so they don't seem so awesome. In a way, we are beginning to expect new and interesting developments. I love watching her grow, and it is amazing to think of how small and blob-like she used to be! She is so interactive and interested now! I love my baby. I wouldn't change this experience for anything.

Picture of the week - Dec 25

2006-12-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry this is a bit late!

Christmas morning with all the presents! We all had a fabulous time.

Six month update, part 1

2006-12-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

My daughter is nearly 6 months old. I can't believe the last 6 months have gone by so fast! In the interest of a bit of record-keeping, I am going to summarize those months here.

July, 2006
Enter Z! At 6:15am on July 1st! She wasted no time. We have joked that she really wanted her doctor to deliver her, because she was born ~2 hours before he was leaving town for 4th of July vacation. I was glad of this, because I didn't want a doctor that I wasn't familiar with delivering my baby. It all worked out.

We spent the customary time in the hospital. That was heaven compared with coming home. It was the first time either my husband or I had put a baby in a carseat. We had no idea what was going on. We came home in a daze. I was already sleep-deprived. That first night home from the hospital was the worst. I was in such a state I couldn't sleep for more than about 30 minutes at a time. I would put Z down next to me after feeding her, and then lie awake just knowing that she would wake up any minute hungry again. It drove me nearly insane. My husband isn't too good at waking up in the middle of the night, and at one point that night he was shushing me like a newborn. I had had it at that point and I cried even harder. I spent a lot of those first few days at home crying. I called my mom and cried, and I even cried to my dad on the phone, which I never do. There was so much crying.

Then my mom came and saved us. She cooked and cleaned and held the baby while I slept. Moms really know their stuff. By the time she left we had things much more under control. Sleep was a very precious commodity that first month. But we made it through the first visitors and all was ok. Looking back now I can hardly believe she was so tiny! And, I've got the amnesia setting in, because I can't exactly remember the hardships. I remember that it was very tough and while I was there I swore I'd never have another child. But it is fading... and I'm starting to think more kids would be absolutely wonderful...

August, 2006
The rest of the family came during this month. I also had to get ready for a conference! I made a poster, with copious amounts of my husband's help. I basically put all the things that needed to be on the poster there, and he arranged them and made it look pretty. He's my "art director". The poster was a success! I celebrated my birthday as well, and my father-in-law made me a delicious cake.

August was the least eventful month. Nothing much else happened. Our baby just kept growing and growing. I think this was the month that we figured out breastfeeding (yes it took us that long!). Z began sleeping longer and we started getting more sleep.

September, 2006
In September we took our first overnight trip! We went to Grand Teton National Park and stayed at the research station there for me to present my master's work at a park colloquium. We were there two nights. We were nervous before leaving, but Z slept like an angel. At that point she was waking up twice a night for food, and I thought that sleeping somewhere different would lead to more frequent wakings, but it was not so! She slept wonderfully, and hence mommy and daddy did too. It was such a fun trip!

Otherwise during September we focused on getting Z on a good sleep schedule - including naps. It took a bit of work, but I think by the end of the month she was taking fairly good naps with no crying involved. That way I could finish my thesis and dad could work on his schoolwork.

Picture of the week - Dec 17

2006-12-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

This picture is from the Archie Bray Foundation grounds in Helena, MT. It is the inside of one of the old beehive kilns. One of our friends works at the Bray part-time, and we went there and poked around the grounds last February. It was super cool! There are some really weird sculptures and such. It is a really neat artsy place.

Dicked around

2006-12-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of things I want to post about, but I'll focus on the most recent first.

Yesterday we went out to buy a new DVD player, since our ~3-yr-old one is crapping out. We went to one of the only media stores in town - a local business (not a big-box store). All three of us went, and we looked at the DVD players and we found the one we wanted, but it had no price sticker on it. This place is basically a showroom, so there aren't boxes there that you can just take to a cash register. So, we stood around waiting for a salesperson to help us. Many other people were being helped. We waited. New people came in, stood right next to us, and got helped. None of the salespeople stopped to help the young couple with a baby.

We stood around for 10 to 15 minutes while others around us got helped. Neither of us was in the mood to push ourselves on the salespeople - feeling as if it is their job to sell to us. However, none of them wanted to deal with us. After about 15 minutes we got annoyed and walked out. I was royally pissed off! We must have talked for the next 20 minutes about how the salespeople were perfectly willing to help the customers who looked like they were ready to spend hundreds of dollars as opposed to a maximum of 100 dollars, and who didn't have any babies in tow. I was even saying, "So much for supporting local businesses!" Usually I attempt to support the smaller locals instead of the big-box stores. I do go to Target quite often, but we try to go to the locally-owned grocery stores, and we go to the local butcher shop, etc. But the electronics store is one local business that I am NEVER patronizing. Seldom have I felt so discriminated against.

Arrgh!

2006-12-11T18:07:00.001-07:00

Blogger beta is having some problems with loading pictures into the sidebar, so no picture of the week on my blog this week. RRRRR

Mistress K

2006-12-10T18:08:00.000-07:00

I had my thesis defense on Friday, and I passed. So now I guess I have a master's degree. Actually I won't technically have it until May. Because I defended late, I have to wait and graduate in the spring semester. I have some things to edit in my document, and then I have to turn it in to the grad college by January 18. I'm on the home stretch!

I've thought a little bit about what I'm going to do with my blog now that I'm not going to be in graduate school anymore. I'm not going directly into a PhD program - I am taking some much-needed time off. So, the title of my blog won't apply anymore! My husband suggested I should keep writing in this blog, and write about issues other grad students have. A possibility. Or I could switch blogs and write about something else. I'm not sure!

Picture of the Week Dec 10

2006-12-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Holidays! Here is our tree. This picture is hot off the press... I just took it 10 minutes ago. We got our tree yesterday and it has lights and a few ornaments, not many yet. Ahhh, christmas.

I made this!

2006-12-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

I made this skirt - my first without following a pattern. It didn't take me too long, but it is kind of thrown together. Making all the panels the same length was difficult. Next time I'm going to try a patchwork skirt with squares instead of lengthwise panels. That might be a bit easier. I still think it looks cool! I'm wearing it for my defense tomorrow.

"We The Living"

2006-12-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

This morning I finished it. I have to say that it was one of the most depressing books I've read thus far. I have a funny love-hate relationship with Ayn Rand. I don't think I'll be reading any more of her fiction.

I think Rand is a fabulous writer. At least, I found 'We The Living' to be well written and engrossing. There were times I couldn't put it down. I have also read 'Atlas Shrugged', and parts of that novel were also engrossing, although I found it got quite boring at times. With both books I found I was compelled not by what Rand would probably want her readers to be compelled by, but by the somewhat secondary plots. I found myself absolutely hating 'Atlas Shrugged' but being driven to keep reading in order to find out what happened between Dagny, Rearden and Galt. A similar thing happened in 'We The Living' between Kira, Leo and Andrei. I'd find myself hungry to find out what happened next in their love-lives, and when I found out I would often scream and throw the book onto the floor. I was engulfed in the love in those two books, which always seemed secondary to Rand's main points, and her philosophy, which is the reason so many people like her work. And the love never failed to let me down. I remember being so upset when Dagny left Rearden for Galt. I was terribly upset when Kira kept choosing Leo even when he obviously no longer cared for her or about her, while Andrei had given her his heart so freely. Kira was drawn to Leo with an overpowering love that could not be stopped, and it was her downfall. She should have seen it!!!!! That is what my mind kept screaming through almost the entire novel. She should have seen Leo for what he was and Andrei for what he was. She should have chosen more wisely! Yet, love is blind. But oh, so depressing.

I didn't particularly enjoy 'We The Living', as I didn't enjoy 'Atlas Shrugged'. I don't like reading Ayn Rand and I won't do it any more. Yet I can see where she is a great writer. Her books do stress me though! I don't want to scream at any more books.

Picture of the week Dec 3

2006-12-03T20:04:00.000-07:00

This week's pic is of my beautiful baby. Yes it's a funny picture. It's difficult to get a picture of her sticking her tongue out. She turned 5 months old on the 1st!

Weight issues

2006-12-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

My baby is 5 months old and I haven't lost my pregnancy weight. I've lost some, but not nearly all of it. It is my fault I'm not exercising enough. I understand that. But I am (and have been for a while now) a little upset at practically everything I've read that says that breastfeeding moms lose their pregnancy weight faster than non-breastfeeding moms. Well, I'm breastfeeding, and I was exclusively breastfeeding until a short time ago, and that didn't help me at all. Other things I read suggested that breastfeeding moms would lose most of their pregnancy weight by 6 weeks. Hah! I had lost about 10 pounds by 6 weeks. That was mostly baby and placenta. What is up with all this literature telling me that I should have lost those pounds easily and about 4 months ago? I don't know.

We're looking at gym membership for Christmas. A real gym, not just the university gym. A place where they have childcare. I really enjoy working out with my husband and maybe gym membership would give us this chance. I've been working out on my own since my daughter was born, and while it is fun and satisfying, it's not helping me shed pounds. When we were undergrads my husband and I worked out together all the time, and that kept us both fit and happy. Hopefully we can become a fit and happy family all together.

No time!

2006-11-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to finish up corrections on my thesis, and get ready for my defense. I have one week from Friday. I'm getting nervous about my talk - I still have to put part of it together. It is good that I have already given several talks about my work, so I have intro and methods parts finished. But I have to figure out how to make my discussion and my summary really kick ass.

I have spent so much time in the past two weeks working on my summary figure. I hope it is going to turn out spectacular. I just had to re-do it this morning to put in even more data, but this should be the last time I have to change big things.

I also made an appointment with the lady at the graduate school who goes over formatting. But that is going to be the Monday after my defense. I can't deal with more before! I'm already leaving the house messy.

On a completely different note, I am enjoying this winter so far. Just in the past two weeks it has gone from mild fall to chilly winter! The high today is not supposed to break 10 above zero. I walked to work yesterday morning through snow on the ground and the brisk air was invigorating. I'm happier than last year because (1) our house is much better insulated than the place we lived last year, so I'm warmer, and (2) I am not having morning sickness every day, which really put a damper on the holdiays last year. I'm looking forward to enjoying baking for Christmas this year! And decorating the tree, and wrapping presents for my baby, etc. Alltogether this year is much more fun.

Pie picture

2006-11-27T08:48:00.000-07:00

I promised a picture of my lemon meringue pie. It was only beautiful until it cooled. Then my meringue shrank. Everyone suggested I didn't use enough. I'll try again sometime.

Picture of the week Nov 27

2006-11-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

This picture, taken this past July 30, is of the fire weather from the Paradise Complex wildfire in the Paradise Valley, MT. We actually drove through the Paradise Valley the next day down to Yellowstone, and the smoke was fairly bad. In a few spots we could see flames. The smoke in Bozeman got much worse around Labor Day, and I have pictures of that too which I will post later.

Happy 100th post!

2006-11-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

Wow! 100 posts in about 2 years. I started this blog back in November of 2004. It seems like so long since then! I've gone through a pregnancy and 4.5 months of my daughter's life. I've also passed my comps and written my thesis. Reading my old blogs is a trip!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I made a lemon meringue pie for the first time ever this year. I will post a picture of it later because it is beautiful.

Have a nice holiday, everyone!

Scheduled

2006-11-21T15:42:00.000-07:00

My thesis defense is scheduled. I have 17 days to prepare. I still have to fix my summary figure and my discussion a little. And practice the talk.

Now I have to care for my baby. What's new??

Picture of the Week - Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving week! I hope you all have wonderful plans for the holiday. We are having dinner here at our house with two of our best friends. And our daughter gets some babyfood sweet potatoes. Mmmm.
This week's picture is me reading a paper by our cozy fireplace - in our previous house. This time of year we really miss the fireplace.

Funny Labor & Delivery Anecdote

2006-11-15T12:13:00.000-07:00

As I promised...

Our daughter Z was born at 6:15 in the morning after a night at the hospital. We had all previously agreed that Danny would cut the cord. So the doctor gave Danny the scissors and he cut the cord. Then the doctor continued with the rest of the birthing process. Danny still had the scissors and he asked the doctor what he should do with them. "Just throw them on the floor", was the doctor's reply. Danny looked down and saw other flotsam and jetsam from delivery on the floor, and obviously they scrub those delivery rooms pretty well. So he did throw the scissors on the floor. But not until after considering that he had bare feet, and hadn't been wearing his shoes since before midnight!

We laughed at this later that day and again when we told my mom.

I should be asleep

2006-11-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

Yes my bedtime is significantly earlier than it was when I was not a mommy. Actually, that is a lie. I just tend to go to bed early. I have for my whole life practically.

I drank coffee this afternoon, which is turning out to be a big mistake. I am tired but not sleepy! AAGH! Sleep is precious and I'm missing it!

Tomorrow... funny labor anecdote. I promise!

Hmmm...

2006-11-13T17:47:00.000-07:00

For those of you with keen eyes, you will notice that the Picture of the Week on my sidebar is not the same picture as the one in my blog text. They are *almost* the same though!

Picture of the Week

2006-11-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

I started using Blogger beta and you can add pictures to your blog super easy, so I've added a Picture of the Week. I'll post it too, so readers who use readers (heh) can see it.

This week's picture is of Swan Lake in Grand Teton National Park. Taken by Danny.

New look, new thoughts

2006-11-12T18:35:00.000-07:00

I hate it when people give up their blogs for a long time and then start posting again. Wait... That's what I'm doing! To those of you who might have me on Google Reader or Bloglines or another reader, I apologize for the long absence.

For me, it has been impossible to write these past few months. Learning how to get along with my child has taken up most of my time. Then there was/is that thesis I have to turn in. I am giving it to my committee members tomorrow! Which means my defense is coming up. I'm only getting a Master's but I still have to do all this stuff. Thankfully it is almost over.

Sure there are tons of things to post about when you have a new baby! But who really wants to sit down at the computer and write about something when you could be either hanging out with said baby, or taking care of the myriad other things that don't get much attention when you are a new mom (e.g. house cleaning, dishes, husband, self). Instead of posting I had to work on my thesis. Now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I want to post again. So I will. And if you are still reading my blog after the hiatus, THANK YOU!

Everything has changed

2006-09-05T17:25:00.000-06:00

We had a gorgeous baby girl born on Saturday, July 1st at 6:15 in the morning. And she is the reason I haven't blogged since then. But she's a good reason. This is from the day she was born. She looks a lot older now that she's two months already!

So many things have happened in the last two months! I don't even have time to recap. I am immersed in my kid and my thesis. I have to have the draft completed by Monday the 11th (my own deadline) to get it to my advisor. I'm giving her over two weeks with it, then I'm getting it to the rest of my committee. I want to defend in November, so I'm hoping this is enough time for them. I still have to set the actual date for my defense, which I'm going to do next week.

In other news, I successfully did a poster at AMQUA when my baby was 6 weeks old. It was not a fiasco! It went really well. And I went to see a couple of talks including Bill Ruddiman's talk about his anthropogenic greenhouse hypothesis, while my husband hung out with our daughter in the lobby.

Now I'm keeping a baby book after deciding not to keep one and then changing my mind about a week ago. My mom suggested I keep one to write down interesting baby stuff in, and at first I thought it was not my thing. Then I realized that I was already forgetting stuff about the first weeks of having a newborn. Then I figured it was a good idea. And we've been taking oodles of pictures of course.

More to come in the future. I promise!!!

Trying to avoid work

2006-06-23T15:14:00.000-06:00

It is after 3pm and I haven't done too much in the way of work yet today. I feel like I'm trying to avoid it even though I keep telling myself I'm not. Why?

I have a good chunk of thesis written. This week I finished the two gruesome tables I had to include. Just today I DID install Adobe on my computer so that I can make my figures. I have a list in front of me of the figures I need. This week I also finished the results section. Now on to the discussion. Which is what I think I am avoiding writing. That and one more section of my introduction that I don't want to write. I must get to it though! I must overcome!

In my procrastination I started reading thehomelessguy's blog (linked from She Falters' blog). I like it! It reminded me of times I've been confronted by homeless people. Most of the time I'm pretty leery of homeless people because there were many crazy ones where I grew up that were just scary and young women wanted to stay far away from them. But there were a few times when I got to know a homeless person a little. One guy I met in Laramie, WY, played the balalaika. And I have a sneaky feeling that one of my former employers is now homeless or close to it. He was my best friend for a while, I knew him pretty well. I hope he is ok.

Finished! (with my book)

2006-06-20T14:15:00.000-06:00

Yay! On Sunday afternoon I finished War and Peace. It was a nice experience in my life. I believe that my favorite quote (at least that I can think of) is the one I posted before. Yesterday afternoon I picked up Skeleton Crew and read The Mist, a story I hadn't ever read before (I've had the book for years but hadn't read every story). I got completely sucked in and read the whole 155 page story in one sitting. It was really creepy outside too - thunderstorms and rain. That always makes King more intense.

I've read a lot of Stephen King in my life; the last book of his I read was Bag of Bones, around December 2004. Incedentally, that book scared the daylights out of me. But, after not having read him for a while, it was nice to get involved in a story of his style. I love the way he writes. I know it is probably simplistic and too mainstream for literature lovers, but I like it.

Life

2006-06-17T17:31:00.000-06:00

"We imagine that when we are thrown out of our accustomed grooves that all is lost, but it is only then that what is new and good begins."

-- Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

I love this book. It has to be one of my all-time favorites. It has taken me quite a while to complete it. I'm actually not done yet, I still have about 100 pages left. But if you know War and Peace, I'm super close to finishing. Perhaps I will finish before I give birth...

I heart friends

2006-06-15T17:34:00.000-06:00

Did you ever have one of those days when all of your friends seemed to email you at approximately the same time? I'm talking about the friends that aren't in the same geographical area as you, the old friends. I had so much fun today replying to emails and thinking about my old friends. One might even be moving somewhere close to me within the next year or so maybe!

One of my friends from here got back yesterday from a visit to her parents, and she stopped by to chat for a while. I've really been missing the girl time lately. I spend lots of time with my husband and no kidding I love it, but lately I've been needing to hang with girls a little. Probably this impending motherhood thing. So that was really nice.

Back to writing thesis

2006-06-12T15:35:00.000-06:00

I've been playing around with data some more, so no actual writing has gotten done in about 1 week. I have a good methods seciton done, and most of an introduction, and background. I'm feeling good about what I've written so far and what I still have to write. I just got done meeting with my advisor and looking at my pollen data. I have just a teeny bit more data analysis to do before I can look at it all and write the story. I'm pretty confident that I can do that well too, without too much hassle. My data looks pretty interesting.

I must say this now - there are some times when I absolutely love my advisor. Today I asked how different my actual thesis should be from the pub that I'm writing it for. She says, "no different, try to make them as much the same as possible. Doesn't the grad school offer a publication option?" No, our grad school does not offer a publication option. But I don't have to explain every laboratory method in detail, I can cite others that actually explain that sort of thing. And my thesis doesn't have to be ultra-long. Ah, sometimes my advisor really is cool. Plus, as I was just ruminating over on my walk to my office, she has been pretty supportive of my pregnancy. She's not overly excited, but she hasn't given me any shit about pregnancy things, or even scheduling things after baby. For example, there is a workshop at Grand Teton National Park that my work should be presented at, coming up on September 19-20. One of us should really go because we got all our funding from the Park and from the other "entity" running the workshop. She asked me today if I think I'll be up to going. I said yes, but with the caveat that I must take my husband and baby. She says that's cool, I should just talk to the lady organizing the workshop and let her know what's going on. She even said maybe I'll get the top-of-the-line accomodations. So, I'm feeling blessed right now.

I am off to make a to-do checklist for myself and see about getting some food. My baby is dropping into my pelvis so there is definitely more room in my tummy for food now. Sometimes it's really awkward to eat because the baby is so squirmy though! It is such a weird feeling! Less than 4 weeks now!

Countdown!

2006-06-05T21:02:00.000-06:00

It's time to start the clocks. The due date is in approximately 5 weeks. Babies can come without hesitation within 2 weeks of the due date. This means I could "go" safely starting the 23rd of this month. Aah!

My Dicentra spectabilis

2006-06-05T20:47:00.000-06:00

This weekend we did get to go to the nursery, and I got a bleeding heart! Here it is. No blooms, and it probably won't bloom this year, but next year it will.

We also got some tomato plants and some seeds. The seeds won't come up for a while, but that's ok. We're not sure when we're going to be in the hospital, and who will water our plants while we're there. I suppose D could come home to water them. That might be silly though. I guess we'll hope for rain.

We just got back from shoe shopping and treats. We bought D some Birkenstocks! These are his first expensive shoes. Maybe in his whole life! The most expensive he's had before are $40 Chuck's. We've been getting the super cheap $5 "fakenstocks" from WalMart for the past few years, but they wear out in a month or so. The ones he had prior to this shopping trip lasted 3 months total, and yesterday the entire "rubber" sole came off and started flapping around. He's been afraid of losing an expensive pair of shoes in the past, but he's never lost a pair of shoes in his life. So we went with the good-investment shoes. I love my Birks, and now he gets to start loving his. How cute!

We also had treats, and I had a huge rootbeer float! MMMMMMMM! I haven't had a rootbeer float in a few years! It was sooo good. D had this cool concoction that is basically an italian soda with ice cream instead of ice. So kind of like a rootbeer float but whatever flavor you want. He had orange, and he said it was good. My baby must be enjoying that rootbeer and ice cream now because it's squirming all over the place. Heh.

References

2006-06-01T11:12:00.000-06:00

I was just working on compiling all my references in one file. I don't have any cool software like EndNote, so I'm just putting them all into Excel. I have lots! It's nice to get them all in one place. I needed it earlier this year when I was writing a progress report. Oh well. Now I have the list for the future.

I'm starting to write my thesis! This references thing was part of that. I don't have much done so far, and this afternoon I get to learn how to process pollen data. I'll be making graphics and stuff like that along with writing for the next couple of weeks. I also have to put together a poster for AMQUA, but that shouldn't take too long. I spent so much of this last semester talking about my charcoal data that I think I can make a poster in a jiffy. I'll have pollen graphs to add to it which will be cool. That's the last step before I can actually come up with conclusions! Yippee!

It is so nice to have the internet at home! I'm actually at home right now, wow! If any of you enjoy "modern rock" check out Woxy. You have to be a member to get the high-quality stream but it's worth it so far. Woxy is cool. There's my shameless advertising.

This weekend hopefully we're going to fix up a bit of garden by our patio. There are a couple of plants growing there now, and we wanted to add some tomato seeds. Last year we grew a tomato plant in the ground and it succeeded. I really want to get a bleeding heart plant for out there. We had one where I grew up next to our deck, and every year it grew and it was huge by the time we moved out! It is supposed to be nice and warm this weekend so hopefully we can go to the nursery and buy some plant stuff! That's always been one of my favorite things about summer.

Working from home

2006-05-30T11:31:00.000-06:00

Ahh, this is the life. Getting some academic work done from the home office. I haven't had internet at home for a veeeery long time. I've never ever had speedy internet at home, in the past it was always dial-up. So this is a new thing for me.

This morning I finished my own abstract for the upcoming AMQUA meeting in August. I sent it off to my advisor (co-author) and she emailed me back in minutes saying it was good to submit and I could register. It's really cool to have an email-responsive advisor. She's the type who checks her email every 5 minutes while she's sitting at her computer, so responses from her are super fast. Now that I have email at home though, she can get in touch with me more often. I guess it's a two-edged sword.

Now I have to walk up to school to take my husband some lunch and do a few things there. Then it's back here for some cleaning and organizing and maybe some more academic work. I have some data processing to do and then I have to put together the AMQUA poster. And writing my thesis!

HOT!

2006-05-17T14:38:00.000-06:00

I'm taking a short break from counting pollen to put my feet up and eat some applesauce. It's been in the 80s here for the past couple of days, and I'm starting to swell. Ick. It's not too bad, but I can feel it in my hands and feet. I could really use a nap right now too, but I've got to stick it out through two more slides. Not so bad.

I'm looking out the window right now and it is so beautiful outside that I don't want to stay in!

Here is a really pretty picture for those of you that enjoy pretty pictures. It's from last summer.

Back? Maybe

2006-05-15T11:04:00.000-06:00

This semester was really busy, and I wanted to get things done so blogging fell by the wayside. Pretty soon we'll be getting internet at our house, so I will probably post more. I've been thinking about it. Since March we've moved to Family Housing. It's super nice here, we're in a 3-bedroom townhouse-type house. It's taken a while to set up, and it's still not finished. There is still some organization needed, but it'll get there. This past weekend we sort of fixed up the new baby's room. We don't have much furniture yet (no crib, etc.) but we do have a dresser and a rocking chair. I unpacked my old stuffed animals and put them in hammocks which is pretty cute. And we washed all the baby clothes we have so they're all ready and we don't have to think about that anymore. It seems like we're set on clothes for the first few months, until it gets cold.

I'm well on my way to finishing my masters. I'll be done counting pollen this month. Then I have data analysis and writing. I've moved much of my stuff home to the "office" there, and that's where I'll be writing. It should be good, I've always liked working from home, and writing seems easier there.

Things seem to be going well with the baby. I'm getting kicked and punched all the time (right now in fact). It's been fun, and we're both looking forward to having it "outside" me.

Emotional Crumminess

2006-03-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling like I really need to post about this (weird!)...

At the end of last summer I posted about telling the new grad student how the lab is. Turns out she just recently got an email from a prospective grad student with questions about the lab. So, she wrote her back and told her what she thinks about the situation here. She was truthful, and I thought she wasn't very harsh at all (she let me see her reply email). Well, apparently she was talking to a couple of our lab-mates yesterday and they yelled at her for being so truthful. They made her feel so bad that she wrote back to the prospective grad student and told her to ask the rest of us (now I have an email to respond to).

I am a little angry because I read her reply email and I thought it was truthful and straightforward without being rude. I feel strongly about telling new and prospective grad students the truth. Why doesn't everyone? Why should new students be "buttered up"? Just to get them to come to your University? Rrrrrr.

This semester hasn't seen much blogging

2006-02-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

I'm sick with a bad cold right now, so I'm sitting here staring at the computer instead of staring through a microscope at pollen. It doesn't feel much better on the eyes. My monitor stinks - I really need a new computer. The one I'm using is old and fryed.

Anyway, there hasn't been much time for blogging in my life lately. I don't have a hugely hectic schedule at school, but during most of my downtime (i.e. not in class or teaching lab) I am counting pollen. It is going well so far. I've mastered the common types in my area (diploxylon pine and artemisia are the big ones, then there are some chenopods, spruce, fir, sometimes a tubuliflorae). I have seen some neato grains, like a linguliflorae, and a caryophyllaceae. I've seen some alder too, which is a nice change of pace from artemisia. I'm trying to power through the pollen.

Last weekend before I got sick I finished counting my charcoal. Now I just have to "analyze" the data - read: blackbox it. I don't want to talk about the black box. Ugh. This is supposedly for a semester project in the class I'm taking from my advisor this semester. Something I can do for that class and also incorporate into my thesis. Not a bad thing, but not too interesting either. I have a semester paper in my other class too, and at first I thought, "Oh, I want to do some more thesis research for that paper too, so I don't 'waste' any time this semester." Then I got to thinking, "How boring!" I like learning new things, and recently I've been realizing that I am really interested in something completely different. So for that paper, I'm focusing on something I'll really enjoy. It'll be a literature review paper instead of a data paper, but that's fine with the professor so that's fine with me. I feel much better for choosing that too, like I'm doing something I want with my time, not just trudging on to the final thesis product.

So I haven't had much time for blogging. I have also been "being pregnant" which is cool. I had an ultrasound last week which was super cool! I also started feeling my baby move around last week, which was also way exciting. I've been feeling it every day since then, and it's pretty cool. Other people can even feel it if they touch my belly - it's already that powerful! So, yes, thinking about mommy-hood is taking up some of my time.

To tell you all the truth, I also haven't felt too much like blogging lately. I don't have time to surf the net, so I don't find interesting newsy things to talk about, and I don't read all that many other blogs. Reading what happened to BotanicalGirl really made me sad too, and that put a wedge between me and my blog. There are some things I have been thinking about related to academia and my PhD (?) but I'm questioning whether or not to put them on here. My husband says I should, because we don't talk to a bunch of other people about our problems/thoughts on academia, so I should maybe get other feedback. But I'm leery about it still. Maybe the next time I get some quality time in front of the computer I will post about some of that.

no title

2006-02-12T11:46:00.000-07:00

"If there is someone on your blogroll who makes your world a better place just because that person exists and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence on your blog."

The all-powerful 5 things meme

2006-02-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't had the chance to post in a looong time, and then I get tagged by BotanicalGirl! Hehe!
Just so you all know, I've been counting pollen, not goofing off. But it really takes the time away from the blog-reading and the blogging!

Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so.

1. Seeking Solace
2. StatGirl
3. ScienceWoman
4. BotanicalGirl
5. K

Then select five people to tag!
1. SithKnits
2. Rhyax
3. Soma
4. B
5. Where's My Tab?

What were you doing ten years ago?
Ten years ago I was in 8th grade. I don't remember a lot of specific events from then (is that bad?), but I had recently started playing the cello, which was awesome. I was really dorky in middle school though, so maybe that's why I don't remember doing a bunch of fun stuff...

What were you doing one year ago
One year ago I was writing grants frantically (well, maybe not frantically) trying to fund my master's research. I didn't write that many actually, only 3. And 2 out of 3 got funded, so I got all the money I needed. I was still trying to get used to grad school and a new place. The new place hasn't been easy. I think I'm still adjusting!

Five snacks you enjoy
1. Animal cookies! I eat too many of these.
2. Cheddar cheese. Yes, just a piece of cheddar cheese.
3. Pistachios.
4. Carrots and ranch dip.
5. Seedless oranges.
The funny thing is that most of these I have only recently been snacking on! Yay for pregnancy. A few month's ago I wasn't eating pistachios or animal cookies or just pieces of cheese. Huh.

Five Songs to Which I Know All the Lyrics
1. Ace of Base - The Sign. Heheh
2. The Beatles - I know lots of their songs...
3. Goo Goo Dolls - Fallin' Down
4. The Clash - London Calling
5. The Ramones - Rock and Roll High School

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. Move away from here to somewhere I want to live.
2. Build a super-cool dream house there.
3. Buy a car that has a working speedometer!
4. Take a vacation, or two.
5. Save some both for "retirement" and my child's education.

Five Bad Habits
1. Saying "like" too much. I'm no 'valley-girl' but I do say it, and it makes me sound silly.
2. Slouching.
3. Not eating enough vegetables.
4. Being judgemental.
5. Watching too much Star Trek.

Five Things You Like Doing
1. Watching Star Trek. Heheh
2. Taking walks.
3. Hanging out with my husband!
4. Reading.
5. Sleeping.

Five Things You Would Never Wear Again
1. Two pairs of socks, layered.
2. A thumb ring. It's just not comfortable anymore.
3. A skirt that's too short.
4. Tapered-leg pants. I just can't stand them.
5. Jacket that is 2 sizes too big.

Five Favorite Toys
1. My sewing machine. I need to use it more, but I do love it!
2. My computer, with whatever silly games on it.
3. Our Gamecube.
4. Whatever book I'm currently reading. Now it is War and Peace by Tolstoy. I'm serious!
5. Pollen-slide making stuff and a microscope.

Passed

2006-01-26T12:05:00.000-07:00

My comps are over. This means I get to keep working. Phew!

I'm finding it very difficult to write something now, because in my head I'm being sarcastic and you can't make a blog sound very sarcastic. I've tried before (I guess, I didn't try very hard) and text just doesn't come across as sarcastic. Too bad, because I'm a pretty sarcastic person. Oh well.

the before-comp weirdness

2006-01-19T15:54:00.000-07:00

My comps are next Wednesday 9am. I'm still studying feverishly. Studying so much makes me forget to do simple things. I can't stand too much of it. My brain is so full of whatever that I am always behind or late or confused.

Anyway, besides that we heard our baby's heartbeat again yesterday. The doctor said it sounds very good. The ultrasound is scheduled in a month!

Comps studying

2006-01-12T13:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, here I am studying for my comps. Actually taking a short break to write this post. I hope you all notice the La Nina post below. What might happen to you in a weak La Nina? Well, if you live on the Gulf Coast you will see it a bit drier than normal, and if you live in the northern Great Plains and Montana you will see it a bit cooler than normal (yay). In the Pacific Northwest it should be a bit cooler and wetter than normal. These things you can expect for the spring.

Anyway, I was going to write something about the daunting amount of reading I have piled in front of me. I realize it is not really THAT much. It could be worse. I have a binder devoted to climate papers - including Teton specific glacier stuff, other Rocky Mountain glacier stuff, ENSO papers, PDO papers, and decadal-to-millennial scale climate variability stuff. Then there's the geography binder (which is thin) and it has stuff on Western settlement geography, grazing history related to settlement, bioregional history stuff, and a little National Park Service historical geography. I've also read a few books which can't be in the binder. Then there is my vegetation/fire binder which is very thick and it has postglacial vegetation papers mostly from surrounding my area, Western US general veg history, charcoal methods papers, tree-ring methods papers and other tree-ring studies in my area, fire and climate stuff from the Western US, a source-area paper or two, and a copy of the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy and Guidance Overview. My next binder is just as thick and includes all the papers we read in the Vegetation History class I took, and lastly I have an archaeology binder that includes some random papers of Jackson Hole archaeology and pages copied out of *the* volume on archaeology in the valley. Oh, and last but not least I have to go over my notes from my Quaternary Geology class and go over a glacial and Quaternary geology book to get my bearings in Quaternary geology again. I keep forgetting about that! Ugh!

I have to go over all the old papers I haven't read in a year or 6 months, and finish reading the geography stuff. I'm hoping for January 25th or thereabouts for the test. I think I'll be ready.

Cool climate stuff

2006-01-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

NOAA predicts weak La Nina!
This is cool because just last week when we were in Jackson, WY, and a bunch of moisture was happening in CA and a bunch of fires were happening in OK, TX and NM, I was wondering if this year will be a La Nina or an El Nino. And, I'm studying up on ENSO for my comps, so I'm all into this stuff.

School, again

2006-01-11T15:46:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a good holiday and that you all got a chance to do something you wanted to.

Today: back to school. Not really for me though, since I only have classes on Monday and Fridays. I am TAing though, so that all gets figured out this week.

I don't have much to say because my brain is packed with things for my comprehensive exam. I studied all break, and I'm still studying. I just really want to get them over with! Very soon. Then maybe I can concentrate on finishing. Heh, fat chance!

2nd doctor's appointment next week! Ultrasound is coming up soon.

No fitting title

2005-12-20T14:20:00.000-07:00

A couple of hours ago my husband and I heard our baby's heartbeat for the first time! It was so, so incredibly cool. Wow.

Otherwise the doctor visit went well. I am not at high risk for anything. I am healthy. I've actually lost 5lb since my last visit at the beginning of November. I didn't have to have a pap, just a little bit of blood taken to test my thyroid. All is well.

Thanks!

2005-12-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all of your congratulations! I'm excited about having a baby, but sometimes it's really hard to be happy and excited *at the moment*. Like when I'm sick or sleepy at 7pm, or when I can't cook anything because it makes me nauseous, or when I think about how different things are going to be! Silly. I've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow, so I'll let you know how that goes.

I've decided that studying for comps will take precedence over counting pollen. Why? So I can get the darn test over with as soon as possible! Late January, probably. Which will be better than February because I think one of my committee members is going to be gone most of February. So, with a couple exceptions I will be reading constantly for the next month. I'm almost certain to fry my brain. But then, it'll be done!

I'd better start... I'll probably need a new eyeglasses prescription when this is done too!

Finally posting again

2005-12-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, finally. After a loooong time. Sorry. I am finally done for this semester. This morning I had a 7am final. Actually, it was either 7, 7:30 or 8. I got there at 7:30. I was throwing up at 7.

Why was I throwing up? Well, I will tell you all now that I am pregnant. I got pregnant in October. Baby is due sometime around July 6. I don't know about any of you who have been pregnant in school, but the first trimester is killing me! I've been sick since week six. And I'm so sleepy! Sheesh. Somehow I managed to complete the semester. I'm so glad.

During break, we are going to visit D's dad and family for Christmas. We're leaving Christmas day again (we did this last year). It's fun though. I'm looking forward to Chicago. Then, just after New Years we are going down to Jackson for some more of my thesis research. This time we're going to hang out at the Historical Society in downtown Jackson for 3+ days. I'm looking for old photographs of any areas around the lakes I cored. I want documentation of land-use changes since settlement. At the Historical Society there are also documents and papers, journals, etc. So we've got our work cut out for us, but at the same time we get to hang out in beautiful Jackson in January, and we got a hotel for really cheap!

Then it's back to school. Over break I am also studying for my comprehensive exam, which will be sometime in Feb I think. My topics are: paleoecology, Quaternary history of the greater Yellowstone area, and settlement of the West and specifically Jackson Hole. I have to get on that settlement stuff, because I know nothing about it. I have a couple books already, and I have a list of papers that I have to get from the library. That's next Monday's project. Also over break I have to start counting pollen. I can't decide which is most important - studying or counting. I don't think I'll fail my comps, but I have to learn this settlement stuff and review everything else or I might do so bad they can't help but fail me. However, getting everything done is going to be a problem. I have to decide on a priority, and I haven't yet.

Everyone, enjoy your break (if you get one)! And do take a little bit of time off to appreciate the fact that you are alive. Happy holidays.

I made an age-depth model

2005-11-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, this morning I sat down and made an age-depth model for the one core that I have fully dated. I did get those radiocarbon dates which I was waiting for to see how old my records are, and now I'm waiting on some 210 Pb dates from the tops of the other two cores. When you have both 14C and 210Pb dates from a site, you can put them together and make a pretty graph. So that's what I did. Here is that nice graph:
Isn't it pretty? I fit a 3rd order polynomial to the data (black line) which is the actual "model". Now I use that to make my charcoal data into a time-series. Then I can start doing all kinds of fun statistics on it. I am looking forward to getting my other lakes age-depth models worked out because one big thing I want to look at is possible correllations between lakes.

Shot day

2005-11-17T14:55:00.000-07:00

Today was flu shot day. My husband and I both got them this year. I can't even remember the last time I had a flu shot. It must have been years and years ago.

Today was also nap-at-work day. Whew! I was so exhausted that I fell asleep in my chair for about 20 minutes. Then when I woke up I was all out-of-it. Needless to say, I haven't gotten much done today other than that flu shot.

I did grade tests, and I'm about to go get some dirt out of the oven and then go to class. I'm still way tired and just sluggish. I'm so glad the semester is almost over!

Well, well

2005-11-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

Another week. I can hardly believe that Thanksgiving is next week! My husband and I are leaving on Wednesday for his mom's house. We're coming back the following Monday. Should be a nice vacation - if I could be assured of not being airsick.

The week after Thanksgiving I have a committee meeting that I have to prep for, and I have another presentation that week too. Ugh. At least the semester is almost over. I'm just looking forward to the break from classes. Yes, I have to work a lot over Christmas break, but at least I don't have to go to class at certain times. I'm getting really tired of that.

I have to go use the printer now to print some papers I need to read for class tomorrow. I completely forgot all weekend, and yesterday, so now I have to catch up. Yay. My brain is addled.

Long weekend!

2005-11-10T13:48:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize until yesterday that tomorrow is Veteran's Day and that means no classes! No statistics tomorrow, yay! A long weekend will be nice. I don't know what we're going to do, but we'll do something.

I feel like I'm plodding along so slowly in my research. Now I'm supposed to finish by the end of June, and that doesn't seem plausible to me. I still have to count all the pollen samples, and then I have to do a whole bunch of data analysis, and write my actual thesis. I feel like maybe I could finish by then if I worked non-stop. But I can't do that. If I did I would just go crazy. Plus I still have to take classes next semester. Aargh! I'm a little worried about this. And I STILL have to go back to Jackson one more time to look at photographs. I don't even know how I'm going to work the photograph thing into my thesis. Yes, this week I'm supposedly "powering" through another round of thesis questions - so that I really can start writing my intro and methods and that preliminary stuff. I'm kind of stuck though. I guess I just have to sit down and think for a while - something I haven't had time for.

On a completely random side note, the strangest things can cheer me up. Just now, I was thinking about the above paragraph and looking at my desk when I realized that I still have these two fake rocks that are models of rocks on Mars. They're fake because they're not really from Mars and they're man-made. But they're pretty cool! That just made me a little bit happier.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Relax a little...

To do this week

2005-11-07T12:11:00.000-07:00

I had a meeting with my advisor this morning to talk about the dates and the next step in my project. So now I have a list of stuff to get done by next Monday. It's kind of nice to have research meetings on Monday. Here it is:

rewrite questions in proposal - to get ready to start writing actual thesis
"play around" with 14C and 210Pb dates from one core and see if they can be correllated
figure out a temporally equal sampling interval for pollen in all three lakes.

This stuff won't take me too long. Except maybe "playing around" with the dates. That one's a little weird. This week I have a lot on my plate though. I also have:

doctor's appointment Tuesday
car appointment Thursday
haircut (!) Tuesday
read for veg history by Wednesday AM
statistics test in less than 1 hour

At least the test will be over 2 hours from now. Whew!

14C

2005-11-03T14:48:00.000-07:00

I finally got my radiocarbon dates! Now I have to make sense of them. This can be a little tricky. My biggest problem? Two dates from the same centimeter (one bulk sediment and one macrofossil) came back different. Very different. Not even close to being within one standard deviation. This is the biggest problem. The others I can probably work out.

I feel extra busy right now. I need to really get cracking on my presentation for veg history. I'm giving it on the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. I'm also setting up a committee meeting, which I think I'm going to have the Friday before Thanksgiving. Now I have to get cracking on my thesis again. I guess I feel like I haven't been working on it much, because I haven't been writing or anything. Now I can actually start writing something, and be writing as I count pollen. Processing starts next week hopefully!

Now I have to eat my banana.

AM pollen

2005-11-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

This morning I decided I'd better get my pollen samples ready for processing, since I need to finish up my thesis next summer. In order to do this I needed an actual physical accounting for each sample that I have. So, I went down to the refrigerator in the basement to grab my sample box. I had to transfer everything to a larger box, since I had some extra that wouldn't fit. While doing this, I spilled everything on the floor! Ugh. It only took me a few minutes to pick everything up. Sheesh.

I got to my desk and started an Excel spreadsheet for all the samples. It took quite a while to write in all the numbers, since I have hundreds of pollen samples. Once that was finished I got to choose which ones I will process. I chose every 7th for each core for the low resolution record. I haven't chosen a higher resolution portion yet, so I can't pick those samples yet. Total processing amounts to 61 samples for the low resolution record. Not bad. I don't know the time-resolution that the pollen will be yet; I'm still waiting for radiocarbon dates. Now I need to start processing and then start counting! It'll take a little bit to get used to counting pollen, but I learn that sort of thing quickly, and I don't see it taking too long. That's the last thing before real data analysis! Oh, plus the January trip down to Jackson to look at historical photographs. I'm looking forward to that too.

My advisor wants me to help the new grad student in our lab write her proposals. She needs to write one for the department, and for Yellowstone NP, and she's applying for the NSF graduate fellowship (which I did last year, to no avail). Apparently my advisor thinks I write much better than the girl does, and she wants me to "coach" her. I don't really know about my coaching abilities in writing. I've never actually tried to help someone write a long paper before. I've edited or put my comments on a few longer papers, but I'm not really sure how to coach someone! I'm not even sure how I learned to write well!

I do remember the first time I tried to write a scientific paper. It was the end of my sophomore year in college, and I was taking a very awesome field geology course. We had to map a different area every few weeks, and then analyze the maps and come up with a geologic history of the area and present it in a scientific paper. It was one of the best classes I took. I remember getting that first paper back with a very bad grade, and hence learning what NOT to do in a scientific paper. I guess since then it has gotten easier.

Nothing to write about

2005-10-27T14:45:00.000-06:00

I'm trying to come up with something, but it looks like I won't make it.

I've got to count some charcoal this weekend. And make sure the rest of the data I've already collected is in order. Next week I have to really start scheduling a committee meeting. And several other things I've been putting off. I should have radiocarbon dates in a week.

Last weekend my friend Marianne and I made pumpkin pies. We made them from pie pumpkins, which is really fun! You just boil the pumpkin until it's soft and scoop it out of the skin with a spoon. Then blend it until smooth and use like you would canned pumpkin. Makes really yummy pies. We made 5, which took all afternoon.

Yet another new template

2005-10-24T12:49:00.000-06:00

I just changed the colors this time. I couldn't even stand looking at all that purple! I hope this is more aesthetically pleasing. If you missed the purple, you're probably better off.

Veg history answer

2005-10-24T11:52:00.000-06:00

Like I mentioned before, here is a post of an answer for my vegetation history class.  The question: Does history matter?  In other words, do we need to know about events in the past to understand the present?
     History matters.  We do need to know about events in the past to understand the present, but even more, we need to understand the past to understand the present, and the future.  Understanding sequences of events that shaped the past or variables that interacted to cause events in the past will help us better understand the present.
     The diversity of the Amazon rainforest is a pertinent question that involves the understanding of history.  If we can understand what caused the Amazon to become so diverse, then we understand the present condition better and can possibly plan for the future.  Adams and Woodward (1989) assert that diversity is controlled by modern-day net primary productivity.  However, they state in their introduction that, “ differences in species richness between three northern temperate regions, Europe, eastern North America and eastern Asia, can be mainly explained in terms of present-day climate factors … without the need to invoke the historical explanation.”     They conclude that history does not matter, because strikingly similar patterns in the productivity-richness pattern occur on various continents, separated by vast oceans.  Therefore whatever happened in these various places in the past certainly did not make any difference in what we see there now.
     McGlone (1996) has another argument.  He argues that, “A close relationship between climate and species richness is observable only at regional scales and results mainly from the influence of glacial-interglacial climatic cycles in determining the regional species pool.”  In other words, McGlone refutes Adams and Woodward’s hypothesis by saying that it is important what plants existed on each continent in the past, and what happened to those plants as climate changed.  McGlone argues that both the plants you start out with and the type of climatic changes they have to deal with all help to give us our modern-day assemblages.  He also reminds us that, “Ecological and biogeographical processes work continuously through time, and the current situation must reflect past ecologies.”
     Another author who advocates for the past is Retallack (2001).  In his paper, Retallack poses a lofty argument that Cenozoic climate change was driven by the expansion of the grasslands and the co-evolution of grasslands and grazers.  Throughout his paper, Retallack argues that grasslands have the ability to control global climate by being carbon sinks, fertilizers, dehumidifiers, and fire starters.  Besides his point that grasslands are important to climate change, Retallack reinforces the argument that understanding history is important for understanding the present.  An underlying point of his paper is that we need to understand what caused the Cenozoic global cooling that lead to the recent ice ages in order to understand our present situation, and what might happen in the future.
     Leopold and Denton (1987) use grassland development to make a strong argument that history is important.  They study the development of grasslands in western North America, and the differences between the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains and Columbia Plateaus grasslands through time.  They state that, “The biogeographic, physical, and climatic contrasts of these regions imply that their historical development must have been very different.”  In comparing the evolution of grasslands over the western U.S., they found stark differences between the three regions over time.  Their conclusion: the regions had to have something different happen to them in the past, and that past affected what we see in those areas today.
     Lastly, Whitlock and Bartlein (1993) show that history matters in the paleoecologic record of the northern Rocky Mountains.  They conclude that vegetation and climate changes in the northern Rockies during the Holocene were due, at least in part, to changes in summer insolation.  Knowing things like this about the past can help us understand why conditions are as they are today.

New template

2005-10-21T15:31:00.000-06:00

I've finally finished a new template. PLEASE let me know if you think it is the ugliest thing you've ever seen, and if it will make you stop reading my blog. Purple isn't my favorite color, but I wanted a cool-colored blog. Something relaxing. But if purple will cause me to lose readers, then I'll change it. :)

I've been combating the sleepy bug today. It seems to happen especially on Friday afternoons. I have statistics class at 1, in a warm room, right after lunch. That always makes me sleepy, and it seems I can't shake it on Fridays. I had some LOI analysis to finish (crucibles to take out of the oven) after class today, and that seemed to wake me up a bit. I was seriously considering going home at about 3 and napping, but I'm still here. I'm hanging on as long as I can today. I think I will go to the physics colloquium at 4. It's a nice change of scenery. Today's talk is, "The Compact Light Source: A Miniature Synchrotron Light Source for the Homelab". Maybe I won't go.

In the interest of something scientific, my next post will probably be from one of the questions we had to answer in my veg history class. I'm finishing them up for Monday, and some are interesting questions. We're learning about ecology, but I"m sure you ecologists out there know way more than I ever will. Maybe it'll encourage thinking. Next time...

The Salt Lake story

2005-10-20T13:10:00.000-06:00

I've been back from GSA for a day now, and I finally have time to write. Sciencewoman asked what my favorite talks were, and how the conference went in general. So here is the story:

The conference started Sunday morning, with the student breakfast at 7. We got to SLC on Saturday afternoon, so we had a bit of time to relax, which was very nice! Sunday noon I had a meeting - and I got a free lunch out of it! Sunday afternoon I looked at the paleontology posters, and I met a couple grad students in paleobotany. They were all very nice. Later Sunday afternoon my husband and I actually got together with one of my friends from high school, who is at BYU. That was fun. We walked around the city and looked at the Temple, and then ate some really, really good indian food. Mmmmm.

Monday morning I saw some paleontology talks. My favorite was "Comparison of museum and published relative abundances reveals a consistent publication bias" by Edward Davis. But other talks were also really cool, like Dan Peppe's "Magnetostratigraphy and megaflora of the lower Paleocene Fort Union Formation along the southwestern margin of the Williston Basin, North Dakota".

Monday for lunch my husband and I went to this quaint little tearoom and had sandwiches and tea. That's where I realized my email problem, and wrote my last blog entry. Later that afternoon I went to some talks in the "Causes and effects of the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum and other Paleogene hyperthermal events" session. I think my favorite from that session was Victoriano Pujalte's "Abrupt climatic and sea level changes across the Paleocene-Eocene boundary, as recorded in an ancient coastal plain setting (Pyrenees, Spain)". But all the talks were great. After that session I had another meeting, and then the grad students that I met on Sunday afternoon invited me to dinner with them. We had empanadas, which were yummy and cheap. Monday night there were alumni receptions, and my husband and I went to the "Rio Grande Rift" reception (it was all NM schools plus UTEP) and saw some people we haven't seen in a while.

Tuesday morning I went to more paleontology posters and talked with Lael Vetter (Spider) about her "The Gilcrease Ranch mammoth site, Las Vegas Valley". I had yet another meeting that morning, and another at 1. We left SLC at about 2 that afternoon.

I didn't go to talks the whole time, but the ones I saw were really interesting. I also really enjoyed talking with the people presenting posters, and meeting new grad students doing what I want to do. It was good all around, I think.

Now that I'm back I have to get my butt in gear! I have a 10 page paper and presentation to write by Thanksgiving, I have stats homework, and I have to get my committee figured out! I'm still waiting for radiocarbon dates so that I can figure out my committee and re-write my proposal. I'm not worried about the writing, that will go quickly. I am getting a little antsy about my committee, since I need to have a meeting this semester and schedule comps for late January or early February. Argh!

In the midst of silliness

2005-10-17T14:53:00.000-06:00

I'm in the middle of GSA in Salt Lake City. Very exciting. Geologists EVERYWHERE! I came here to meet people doing what I want to do, and so far I have had one success.

I am one of the few left without a cell phone. So I told the people that I wanted to meet with that I would be checking my email often. I have been checking it fairly often, several times a day, but I seemed to not be getting anything! The webmail I am using from my university has recently been changed, so I was trying to use the new system. And just a few minutes ago I realized that I wasn't seeing new emails because for some reason, I wasn't sorting by date... *sigh* I had a couple of emails from the people I wanted to meet with, all suggesting times or places. One was this morning, which I completely missed because of my email faux pas. Oops.

Hopefully, all will work out well. Yesterday was really productive actually. My meeting went very well, and I *maybe* found some potential projects (PhD or just work, either is good). I have seen some great talks and met some really cool people doing cool things. I'm just a bit angry with myself for being such a dork. And, it is very difficult for me to just walk up to people and introduce myself, especially when they're talking to other people. I haven't got that level of self-confidence I guess. I'm learning to be more assertive though. It just takes some time.

Anonymous thoughts

2005-10-14T14:23:00.000-06:00

BotanicalGirl has recently written a very thought-provoking post about anonymous blogging, and what or what not to write. This got me thinking a lot (as I'm sure it got most people thinking) about my own blog and how anonymous I am.

I've thought about this a little before. I changed my "name" to just K (before it was my first name). I don't have much in the way of a profile. I have made my geographical location clear in previous posts, and my university. I have talked about my department a couple of times, nothing very specific. I have talked a little about my research, but not in any great detail either. This is different for me than BotanicalGirl, because I'm not afraid of getting scooped, I just think it would bore all my potential readers to death! I try not to complain about specific things, such as university policies, my advisor, department, labmates, etc. Because I don't want them to find my blog and potentially read what I think about them, of course. So I try to keep that to a minimum. Except that I have expressed the fact that I don't particularly love my research and I'm looking for something new. But my advisor knows that already anyway.

Very few people I know personally read my blog. I think my husband reads occasionally, and my mom reads maybe once a month. My *constant* reader is my father-in-law (hi dad!). I really love the fact that he reads my blog on a regular basis. I love it because I know at least someone will read what I write (and that's always a good feeling). But I also love it because I feel that by reading whatever I write, he is getting to know me a little better, and with that I feel closer to him. We get along well already(which is fairly lucky I think), but we don't get to talk much, so this is a way of keeping mentally in-touch.

Sometimes I would like to post more about my research (when it is interesting), but I do feel like it is boring to the average reader. A few readers of BotanicalGirl's blog commented that they enjoy her more personal posts. I enjoy them too! I feel that we're all sort of getting to know one another in the blog-world, however anonymously. And it is always soooo nice to find out that someone else is going through similar things in their life. Whether you read about it on someone else's blog, or post something personal yourself and get comments, you're pretty much assured that someone out there can empathize. I love that about blogging. It's almost like group therapy. I know that sounds totally corny!

Getting things together

2005-10-14T11:47:00.000-06:00

I spent this morning getting ready for my trip to Salt Lake city, where I'm going for the Geological Society of America conference. I'm not presenting a poster or giving a talk - I'm going to meet some people doing what I really want to do. I want to get to know more people in the paleobotanical field, maybe to find some PhD research or just other research in general. I'm really looking forward to this.

The weather should be nice for the trip too. My husband is driving down with me. It should be a nice break from school here, for a couple days.