first harvest

Look at these beautiful squash! Aren't they gorgeous? I put the spoon in there for scale, but this is our first harvest, and it looks like we'll be harvesting zucchini for awhile.

jodi is an Ironwoman!

This weekend Jodi completed an Ironman Triathlon in Sonoma Wine country in California called Vineman.

She totally kicked ass when others were getting sick from dehydration and poor nutrition. I got some good photos which are at home and I'll post soon.

I am so proud of her...she can talk all the smack she wants now. She swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles and ran a full marathon (26.2 miles). All in about 15 hours.

She rocks!

weight

I just realized that I have probably gained 5 pounds from this intense writing spell I've been doing. It is not because I've been sitting so much and not going for walks etc. (although that is a factor). But I think I've probably gained weight because I am at my most productive when I have a little snack that I can nibble on as I write. It could be raisins or carrots or cookies, or nuts, or jordan almonds (YUM!), or whatever...just as long as I can take a bite every once in a while to keep my brain moving. The key is to make sure the snack is a fairly healthy one. This trick seems to help for getting lots of writing done...unfortunately, it is also helping my hips ;-)

ironman

no- not the movie. Jodi's Ironman Triathlon is coming up here in 5 days (not that she or I are keeping track ;-). It is in Sonoma and I'm excited for 2 things. I'm excited to see Jodi kick some butt, and I'm excited to be in wine country. It sounds like while Jodi is doing one of her 56 mile bike laps, we might be able to go out to a nearby winery and do some sampling and make it back in time to cheer her on for her second 56 mile lap.

And since my prospectus is due to my committee on thursday- I'll be fancy free on friday when I go. Then I can stop thinking about educational segregation for a few days or so!

productive

Last night I did some work on my dissertation proposal and felt pretty good. I wrote about 1 page in total (scattered throughout the document), but I was happy with my progress. (I am up to about 28 pages)

Tonight I was going to stay late and work on the proposal, but I remembered that I bought a tuna steak we were going to sear on the grill. But I'm feeling very hopeful and productive and I plan to come back to the office after dinner to get a good few hours in. It is sometimes easier to get work done at the office than at home with all the myriad of distractions. If it isn't Sam or David, it is the laundry, or the dishes, or something!

doggy paradise?

David sent me this last week or so and I think it is so funny. The ad for it is below. you can buy it from the SkyMall (you know those magazines on airplanes?).


The Pet's Observation Dome.

This clear acrylic dome opens a window to the world that helps satisfy a pet's natural curiosity while maintaining safety and security. The porthole mounts easily over a hole cut into the fence and the 9-1/2" diam. dome protrudes 5" to give an inquisitive canine a panoramic view of the world beyond. The black plastic flange secures the porthole into any style of wood privacy fence. Spacing several portholes along the fence gives your pet an unfettered view of its surroundings and may help reduce barking or other undesirable behaviors. 12-1/2" Diam. x 5" D. (3 lbs.)

_________________

Now, I personally think it might encourage barking, not reduce it. Anyway- thought it was cute and wanted to share.

too dependent

I had an all day meeting today and so I checked email in the morning before I went into it. When I got back tonight I tried to check email in my room, and it wouldn't connect. I felt so deprived that even though I tried to watch TV or read that paper, I couldn't take it and came down to the lobby to use the wireless here. I just think it is sort of sad that I am so dependent on technology and that I feel out of the loop without it.

raining

when it rains it pours. Not only do I have to finish a new draft of my dissertation proposal by the end of the month, but a co-author and I heard back on an article we submitted for publication. They have accepted the article with revisions- which is great! Better than a revise and resubmit (R&R).

But now that means I have to work on those revisions as well- also due at the end of the month.

delusional

Any one who thinks David Caruso is a good actor is delusional. See this link for a clip of some of the corniest and badly acted scenes from David Caruso. It made me laugh out loud. I didn't watch the whole thing, but even just a minute of it is hilarious.

David sent me a link to another great commentary on America,
and the caruso clip was in it.

The commentary on America is quite apt, I think. Sorry Dad and Suzanne for #2. ;-)

one of those things

This is one of those things that you get via email and you think-- surely it can't be that hard to do what they say, but then you try it and it doesn't work. At least it didn't work for me. Are you special enough to do this?

As David told me... Try it! Fight it... you can do it!!!

general exam

OMG! I am both ecstatic and nervous at the same time.

This week I had a meeting with my dissertation chair regarding the latest draft of my dissertation proposal. At the meeting, she told me that if I could pull together another revision of the proposal in the next few weeks (by the end of July), she wants to schedule my general exam mid august! The general exam in my department is basically a defense of your dissertation ideas, and a discussion about the direction of your project. If I can pull this together I'll be a doctoral candidate before I know it! As I said, this makes me very happy--because, well, it means serious progress, and it makes me very nervous because that means I have a LOT to do in the next few weeks.

I've got a work trip next week to Boulder, so that time is off the table in terms of when I can work on the revision. I think the revisions are definitely do-able, I just need to do some additional reading to get them done. and that takes time....

reviewer

I can now officially say that I have reviewed an article for a journal. I've been reviewing papers for conferences for a few years, but this is the first time I've been asked to review a paper for a journal.

It was a little weird b/c I knew who the author was, and she is a big name in the area, and that made me a little nervous. But I put that fact aside and decided that I just had to give my comments as if a student of mine had written the article. So I did...to tell the truth, I wasn't that impressed with the article and findings. I hope the journal editors find my review useful.

more good news!

Congratulations Mom and Peter on your engagement!

Don't they look like they are having fun?

My mom recently got engaged to her sweetheart, Peter.
They are planning a winter wedding, with a big spring party. We are looking forward to it.

The Happy Couple

last minute

Here I am, writing a quick entry before David comes to pick me up from work. I realized this morning how lax I've been with writing lately. I think the problem is that most of what is in my head is work and so I don't feel like I have much to write about.

However,

Today I can brag on my sister, Jodi.

This weekend she completed a half-Ironman in Texas.
Here is the play by play of her performance, as reported by Emily via email:

jodi , superstar, age 36 (bib #690) finished the ironman buffalo springs 70.3 in 06:40:03 total time. she was the second woman to finish in her age division in the swim, charging ahead of many of the males in her division. jodi moved quickly to the bike with a 2:45 minute transition time out of her gear. her pace for the bike was a speedy 15.72 mph. now after finishing the run (where she averaged 11:35 min per mile), she is ranked 28 in the women's age group 34-39, and 165 overall ranking.

free pavers

Yesterday David got a call from one of the contractors working on one of his projects and the contractor said that he had a bunch of pavers that he had to get rid of asap and if we could haul them- we could have them.

Amazingly- we've been looking at pavers to add some walkways to the back yard-but they are pretty expensive so we had put that project on the back burner.

These were pavers that were used for only about 9 months as a temporary sidewalk and stairs. They are nice and smooth concrete on top and are a good color of gray. We had looked at the ones at home depot and brought one home and they looked bright white against our other slabs of concrete. The ones we got for free are great, and now David can have a new yard project that should keep him busy for another month or so.

$4.45

$4.45 / gallon. That is how much we paid for gas this morning. Argh! I'm going to have to re-do our budget to account for the extra $100 a month we are spending.

my sister's wedding

This past Saturday my sister got married to her partner in Massachusetts where same-sex marriage is legal. Emily and Melissa put on a fabulous party and had the most touching wedding ceremony I've ever been to. I cried (of course). It was very nice and now they are off on their honeymoon to Montreal and Vermont.

Here are some M&M's I had made for them. They were just for fun (not favors or anything).

Here is Grandma Ferguson with a good smile on her face. She really had to endure a lot to get to this wedding, and Emily and Melissa were very thankful that she made it. She was even carried up two stories in a ladderback chair because she wouldn't have been able to walk up the stairs herself.

Here are the Lammert's with the happy couple. My mom and I did all the flowers (mostly bought from trader joes)- they turned out nicely- the colors worked well with their color scheme.

Here is the happy couple with Melissa's family. On the left is Melissa's sister and on the right is her 'sister' from Denmark.

This is a good one of Melissa and her parents.

rat killer

*******Warning: this post is not for the weak of heart- ****it includes descriptive langauge regarding death and blood*******

Just two days ago I had to kill a rat. It was gross that there was even a rat anywhere near our house. Let me begin the story from the beginning ;-)

Tuesday I was at home sick. At one point during the day our neighbor offered to have Sam come over and play with her dog, Emma. So, I took sam over there. They were playing as usual for awhile. At one point (probably by chance), I looked out the kitchen window and saw Emma running after what looked to me to be a squirrel. Emma ran it across the yard, and then Sam caught on and they both chased it up toward the front of my neighbor's house.

I figured that surely the little squirrel had gotten away, as those suckers are fast!

May 10-15 minutes later I heard some squealing outside and I couldn't tell what was going on, but it looked like Sam was ready to come home. Our neighbor came outside at the same time, and I heard her say something like "oh no- it is a dead animal!" The dogs had obviously caught the small animal they were chasing and seriously injured him.

The dogs wanted to play with this animal, but we obviously didn't want that, so I ran over to the neighbors to get sam. We checked out the small animal, which turned out to be a rat. His body was about as long as the distance between my thumb and pinkie finger when they are spread out (like the hang loose sign). Unfortunately, it looked like it was still alive, but that it's back legs/spine was broken (that part wasn't moving at all). I really didn't want anything to do with this rat. My neighbor called her other neighbor to see if he could come help us, but he told us we should do it ourselves. Let me pause here to say that while I consider myself self-sufficient and a feminist, there are some things I am HAPPY to let other people do for me. This is one of those things.

So, I realized we would have to take care of it ourselves. So, I brought Sam back to our house, put him inside and got a shovel and a garbage bag. I was pretty sure that I was going to have to dispatch the rat since it seemed it was the last thing my neighbor wanted to do.

I don't like the idea of killing a mammal. For some reason, killing insects (flies, bees, spiders) doesn't bother me at all. But to kill a mammal is tough. I knew that this guy was probably in quite a bit of pain, and he certainly wasn't going to limp off to die in a hole somewhere. So, I steeled myself for what I had to do.

The problem is, I don't know if the rat was in a bad spot on the ground but after hitting him with the shovel a couple of times, he wasn't dead yet. That was the hardest part. It certainly would have been easier if he had died on the first hit. But to know that I have been hitting him and he is not dead just hurt my heart (even though he is a rat).

I did my best to hit him a couple more times. Finally he stopped blinking and moving and I saw blood coming out of his ear. This is disgusting. Don't forget I warned you that this would be disgusting and graphic. The last thing I wanted to see was blood.

I shoveled him into the garbage bag I brought and then my neighbor got another garbage bag and we double bagged him.

That is not something I have ever done before, and I hope that I never have to do it again. My neighbor called me her she-ro. I certainly didn't feel like one. I went home, cleaned the blood off my shovel and put it away.

licorice

I am on a huge licorice kick. I really like black licorice. I think this all started from my recent trip when I got some Good and Plenty candy. Then when I got home and we went to the local sundries shop I saw that they had some brands of licorice I had never tried. So we bought some. I fell in love with the brand above- RJ's. This is the best licorice I have ever had. The store I bought it from only sells the black kind as single logs ( see below)

The company is based in New Zealand. Why do the Aussie's and Kiwi's have the best licorice? I went online today and bought a few bags of the stuff (like the photo at the top). The raspberry licorice flavor they have is good- really addictive, but this black licorice is like nothing I have ever had. the texture of it is perfect, and the flavor is very strong.
Love it! Did I say that already ;-)

happy graduation Em!

Today my sister graduated from MIT with a master's in architecture. MIT, being the technological university it is, webcast the graduation ceremony. So, I got to see her hanging out in her seat, and receiving her diploma. My other sister saw Em processing in and taking her seat, but I wasn't able to see that.--I'll go back to the webcast and see if I can find it.

I wish this sort of thing could be routine-webcasts of important events so that people who can't afford to travel can see the event.

It was really cool

congrats Emily!