more nyc photos

more nyc

looking down into the MoMA courtyard.


The subway is fun!


And it was chilly while we were there!


Cool building with trees growing out of the landings


At the central park skating rink.


The next few are all of times square.


The "naked" cowboy

tried to post

I swear, I've now tried to post images and a few videos more than 5 times today and each time it has given me an error.  I will get more stuff up as soon as Blogger fixes their problem.

finally, some NYC

this isn't all of them, but at least there are some... I'll get to the others later.

Flatiron building

Flatiron building and me.

Hearst Tower

Start of Central Park (South east corner, I think)

A view from within central park.

Another view from Central Park

Chrylser building (can you tell my husband is an architect ;-)?

Grand Central Station

Inside Grand Central Station

response rates

I know I'm not supposed to blog about work, and I know that what I'm about to say is probably not interesting to many of you, but I've got a sort of natural experiment going on with a web survey I am administering at 23 universities nationwide. In general, response rates to web surveys average below 30%. Social scientists like to see rates of 70-100% response in order for them to say that the respondents are representative of the population.

So, about 6 of our schools have closed the survey. The response rates range from 35%, 35%, 39%, 48%, 53%, and 88%. The incentives at each of these schools was similar- and in fact a school who made the incentive drawing significantly larger didn't have as good of a response rate as a school who held a drawing for a $100 check. I'm thinking there has got to be something with the culture at some of these schools, and maybe the size of the institution, but I am just totally shocked that one of the schools got an 88% response rate!

This is a methodological publication waiting to happen. I wish I knew what caused the differences in the rates.

busy-ness makes the person more productive?

I've had a theory- as have others, that the busiest people are the ones who are most productive with their time. For example, back when I was planning my wedding and writing my master's thesis there was something family related that needed to get done. I recall that I was the only one who put it on the list to do and got it done. It seemed like, out of necessity, I had become uber-organized and therefore was super productive with my time. If it got put on my list, it got done.

I'm hoping that something similar will work for me this quarter. The class I'm taking is already taking up way too much of my time, just for the reading. Let alone, I am supposed to be writing my dissertation proposal AND work at my job 40+ hours per week. Add to that the fact that the triathlon is about 16 weeks away and I need to get on a serious training regimen (that and I want to look good for my sister's wedding). So, I'm thinking that because I've got so much going on, I will be able to get all of it done because of the fact that I've got so much going on...I know it is a bit of a tautology (circular logic), but I'm banking on it.

Because the truth is, I'm not really willing to let any of it go. I want to do it all. Maybe I'm asking for trouble...

thanks

Thanks to all for my birthday wishes. I do appreciate it. I had a wonderful dinner at Ray's Boathouse and David made me a carrot cake (yummy!). I finally downloaded our photos from New York, but there were more than 300, so we need to go through them and pare them down to the best ones to post. That may take some time, so please bear with me.

I'm taking a class this quarter which will finish off my minor certification in stratification. I have agreed with the professor that my final project to be graded on will be my dissertation proposal. arghh! I can't believe I've promised to get this done in one quarter, while I'm working full time.

I'll let you know how it goes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIZZY!!!

Happy, happy birthday, happy birthday to youuuuuu...
Happy, happy birthday, happy birthday to you!

Have a great day today! I love you!

David

too much work

This weekend David and I bought some boxwood bushes to make a hedge in our backyard and we shoveled out the grass that was in those spots and dug holes and planted the bushes. I need to take a photo to post.

Anyway- I think I did a little too much bending or something because my back is definitely sore from all that work. On saturday after all the digging and planting was done, I was seriously afraid I had done some real damage. But I woke up sunday to a sore back, and no additional pain, so I'm relatively pleased that I didn't hurt myself.

Happy Belated Birthday!

Happy Belated Birthday to Ann!

Some spring flowers to celebrate your birthday at the beginning of spring!

despicable

This is a despicable speech given by an Oklahoma state legislator. It makes me sick and it makes me want to do something. My good friend Jeremiah told me about it, and I want to tell you about it so that you too can do something.

Speech by Oklahoma Legislator

This is hate speech.

take your doggie to work day

Today I took Sam to work with me. I asked all my co-workers who would be here today if they were okay with it, and they all were, so I brought him in. I brought our baby-gate with me and put it at my door so people could still come and talk with me, but he couldn't get out of my office. I even had a co-worker who came into the office to meet Sam even though it was her day off!

He did well. He whined a couple of times when I left the office for the bathroom or another office, but he mainly just hung out, got petted by my co-workers and laid on the floor. I'm think it might be possible to try this again another day. I already asked my boss if she would be okay with me bringing him in and she said she would be. She wasn't here today, so I'll have to bring him in on a day when she is here and see how things go.

cute sam story

Last Night Sam and I went for a walk around UW campus. On the front steps of the Hub building is this statue of a Husky. The Husky is our mascot, for those who don't know. I wanted to see how Sam would react to this big bronze dog. BTW- this dog is about double the size of a normal dog.

So, I walked him up to the dog, and let him have a little extra leash to go where he wanted. He was tentative, but walked up to sniff the Husky's bum. I had to laugh. Even though it isn't a real dog, he was treating it like a real dog. After he sniffed he seemed to get scared and backed away quickly on the leash. He really really wanted to get away from the big dog. So we walked away, but he kept turning around to look back at the Husky. We just kept walking.

Crested Butte Skiing

We had a great time in Crested Butte this year, on our annual ski trip. Unfortunately Em and Mel couldn't make it, but we'll party with them soon enough in Boston ! They had record snowfalls and in town the snow was piled up to the bottom of the second story of houses!


Here is a view of the surrounding mountains. This is not Crested Butte mountain. I have pictures of it at the end of these pics.


We are ready to go!


Jodi and Matt look ready to take on the mountain! And boy did they! I had a hard time keeping up with them.


This is a lunchtime picture of Dad and Suzanne. Too bad the light was streaming in on both sides of them or this photo would have been better. I think Dad was happy to be taking a break ;-)


Gotta take off your gloves to look at the map---boy do your hands get cold fast that way!


Dad's enjoying the ride on the lift.


Jodi and Matt at lunch on the first day of skiing. Lunches were relatively inexpensive compared to other places we've been.


Me on the second day.


This was the day before we left. They had these ice sculptures all around the base area. From the first day I saw this one I wanted to take photos with it. Finally on the last day I got my photos!

I made David pose too!

Jodi coming off a nice fast run.


And here begins the series of photos of Crested Butte mountain. It was so pretty from where we were staying and from down in the town area, that I took lots of pictures of it.


This was on the first day of skiing- it snowed overnight and continued snowing lightly until after lunch.


This is the classic view of the mountain. The way the apex sort of tips to the left is how Crested Butte's abstract logo looks .



From the town area before sunset.

Happy Birthday Jodi!

It's your birthday!

Have a good one!

photos of sam

Sam really likes to look into the mirror in our bedroom. This was after a long walk.

One night after dinner.

My two boys--aren't they cute? Both are hams!

My two sweeties.

dog psychology

I've got a question for all you burgeoning dog psychologists....

Every time David and I hug and Sam is in the same room, he barks at us. Almost like he wants us to separate. When we do separate, the barking usually stops.

What is going on here? Is this a possessiveness thing?

so much stuff

Yesterday David and I compiled a bunch of home improvement things we had bought but not used. We went through our 2007 and part of our 2006 receipts to find the receipts for these items so we could return them.

At Big Box 1 and Big Box 2 they told us they didn't need any of the receipts we had searched for because the purchases were over 90 days. I should have realized that! Many of the purchases were over 300 days old! So they gave us merchandise credits. Can you believe that we had about $300 worth of stuff just sitting in our basement, not being used? I can.

the dog ate my homework

No- really. Sam sort of ate my homework. We have been keeping sam in our basement rec room during the day while we are gone. Yesterday we came home and a whole expanding file folder was strewn about the floor. This is an expanding file folder with articles that are relevant to my dissertation. Front pages of articles were gone. I'm not sure if they were eaten, or just mixed in with the general loose papers that were on the floor. There were other casualties of the day, such as my folder with receipts, and a couple of CD's and their cases.

I didn't have the energy to go through the paper stack last night to put papers in the right places. I'll have to do that this weekend. In fact, I'm not sure why, but after dinner all I wanted to do was curl up in bed and read. So that is what I did. And then I went to bed at my new bedtime (9pm!). I can't believe I go to bed then, but I haven't had a problem falling asleep yet. I need 9 hours of sleep and so going to bed at 9pm and getting up at 6am gets me my nine hours. I'm still tired in the mornings, but not as much as when I go to bed at 11pm.

Happy Birthday Carolyn!

To my wonderful friend in MO-town..Happy Birthday!

Have a great day and I hope you have a wonderful birthday weekend!

Happy Birthday Will!

A round of cheer to David's Dad (Will) who is celebrating his birthday today!

Happy Birthday!