Sorry, my gender roles are all backwards

I had another pretty busy weekend, lots accomplished, it was just all *girl* stuff.

Jess and I went on a hike on Saturday. There’s a national wildlife reserve up a bit north of us, and we got our camel backs put together (thanks, Sandlin!) and decided to check it out. It was all quite pretty, and we ended up wandering around a bit off the beaten path to check out some really neat vistas. They don’t call this area ‘hill county’ for nothing. I’ll try to put up some pictures later, but I’m pretty tired from everything else.

After we got back from the hike, I tried out an Alton Brown cooking experiment. I’d seen an episode on making pocket pies and had showed it to jessie, who agreed that it looked like the greatest thing since sliced bread So I cooked up a double-batch of pie crust and made a whole big bunch of pocket pies. Most of them were apple pies. It was my first time making apple pie filling, too. Turned out pretty good. I also made some Pizza pocket pies and a couple with chocolate inside. Then I baked some and pan-fried some more. They all turned out delicious, because it’s hard to go wrong with that much shortening and flower, but the baked ones were a lot more uniform. It also took a really long time, though I was cooking a double batch. I ended up with nearly 30 pies. We’ve still got a lot of them, they keep really well.

Then today, Jess and I switch genders. She went off and played some sports then came back to watch the big hockey game. I did some sewing.

Big thank you to Nana for teaching me how to use a sewing machine, I got a lot of use out of it today. We bought some curtains that we liked but that were the wrong size or configuration for our bedroom or bathroom. We were just going to get them altered, but the cost for the alterations was almost as much as it would have cost for us to just buy a new sewing machine. So we did. (Sew we did. Ha!)

Jess set it up and read through the manual, and then I did again today to learn a few extra skills, like threading bobbins and the like, and learning about all the completely bonkers stitches our machine can do. Then I did some measuring and put together some pretty nice stitches, if I do say so myself.

So yeah, pies and curtains for me, hockey and hiking for Jessie. I need to go, I dunno, build a deck, or something.

Micro news: The birds have returned to our backyard, with the inclusion of our new, covered bird feeder. We’re going through a lot of birdseed. I blame the squirrels, but they’re cute too. I’m going to try and work on the yard next weekend, I think it’s finally warm enough to start planting, and maybe even turning on the sprinklers. Exciting news at work, there is a new project starting up that I get to be a big part of. Not the technical lead guy, but one of the primary workers. I’ve worked my way through the first of my old music textbooks. I want to try a simple composition, either in SATB or piano style, and then go onto book 2.

-N

Papa stories: The proposal

I am visiting this weekend in Spokane, I did escape the weather on the east coast, and Tsunami on the West. Since I didn't have my voice recorder out at dinner, I wanted to commit this story while it is still fresh.

I was asking Papa about the UW campus when he was a student there, and we transitioned easily to this, one of our favorite stories. When Nana and Papa had been seeing each other for a while in 1941, he brought up marriage. He said to Nana, " We seem to be getting along pretty well. Do you think you might like to get married?" To which she said, oh no. She was very focused on finishing her degree and it seemed like a bad time. But they continued dating. On December 7, they were headed to have dinner with their friend Mignonette and her husband somewhere they were house sitting. They were supposed to pick up a friend, who ran out of the house saying, "The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor! It's all over the radio!" It was pretty apparent that this would force the US would engage in war, and a draft seemed inevitable.

After dinner, Mignonette suggested they walk up to UW to see the Christmas program. On this walk, Nana said quietly to Papa, "I think I've changed my mind. I think I'd like to get married." The rest is history.

***

Another bit that I heard about for the first time tonight was that Nana and Papa used to live in GI housing Kirkland. When I asked when, Papa said plainly that when Bart was born, he only trusted him not to crawl off into Lake Washington until he was about 6 months old. After he was about 6 months old, it seemed they should sell the house boat and move to the affordable housing for veterans in Kirkland. Any one know where this was in Kirkland?

I also found that the summer Papa work in herring processing, he was based out of Little Port Walter on Baranoff Island.

Best Possible Outcome

Let me set the stage: Weeks of preparation go into this day, and everything is assembled just so, from the notepad and pen to the papers that were left behind. This is a meditation on readiness. People start filing in slow at first. Eventually the steady flow increases until every chair is full, and they keep coming. More chairs are packed in, but they keep coming. It is standing room only in here, and they are standing 3 deep out the door. And they are all restlessly waiting, all carefully watching me.

It's hard not to be nervous- of course I know what I am talking about, I might be the only person in the world that REALLY knows what I am talking about. But I want to be able to convey that I DO know what I am talking about with authority. And some 100 pairs of eyes dispassionately watching can be a lot to take on- but I start talking. Dr. Boss told me in my first talk to memorize your first slide- if you can get through it unjangled, you can get on a roll. And it's true. I settled in to my slides, I was quite pleased with how it all came together. The audience seemed receptive. I took a few pauses to highlight some things I was really excited about, and I saw smiles, I even got a few laughs. At then end, there were lots of thoughtful questions, and I tried to answer them as thoughtfully as possible, which lead to other good questions. In my mind, the mark of a good seminar is the quality of questions asked.

But this wasn't really what I was nervous about. I have spoken about things I know much less about in front of more people. The seminar needed to go well- making me seem smart, experienced and talented- because immediately following was my committee meeting. My committee is made of some really great scientists, and though I chose them because they like me and think I'm smart, the nature of the process is still very subjective. Very.

Fortunately, Dr. Boss totally stepped up as my advocate. He said "Sandlin has done a lot of work, and is on track to publish 2 papers in the next year." Everyone agreed that this sounded reasonable, and had no major objections to the track, and then.... this is the best part... they signed my forms for Admission to Candidacy. This is one of the major hurdles that can potentially set back graduation by a long bit- if the papers hadn't been signed today, it might have languished another YEAR. What it really means is that we have all agreed that I will be done before the summer of 2011- which is on track to move on to a new position in the Fall of 2011, as I had hoped and dreamed. This also means I've picked a title, and I know that my committee is pretty impressed with my work- which makes the next step less daunting.

FBI at SSU

So we all know that there's not a lot of money in California, and apparently now we know why. I saw the FBI on campus and checked the Press Democrat. Check this out. I'm so glad I'm graduating and getting out of here.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100218/ARTICLES/100219459/1350?p=2&tc=pg

I'm fine, by about a block

Hi, everyone.

If you've been paying attention to the news, (as I check, it's on the front page of CNN) you might have seen that there was a deliberate plane crash in Austin. It actually happened at a building right across the street from us thought the crash was on the other side of the building. A guy said h We could easily see the smoke, and there were reports floating around here of a fireball when the plane crashed.

Jess and I and everyone I know are all just fine. The building that got hit isn't related to our work at all, it's just shockingly close. You can get all the details from the news stories, and I encourage you to read his 'manifesto', as well. It's written well enough, none of the usual crazy ramblings you might expect (or fear) to see, and at least it gives context.

But yeah, we're fine. If anyone wants to give me a call, you know where to find me.

-N

You have good ideas, I have good ideas

I am giving a seminar at the end of this week. This whole process involved writing a 20 page paper about everything I've done in the last year or two, which I submitted to my committee yesterday. It took about 3 (snow) days to put together, before I submitted it to Dr. Boss- who dealt it a near lethal blow with the red pen. This was surprising, since this is mostly a document he's read before (as a draft of a manuscript)- apparently not as carefully though! This put me in the mindset of his comments though- it's not like he disagrees with me (although when your rough draft bleeds out, it is hard not to feel that way), he wants me to convince everyone else. In the past I've felt like we weren't in agreement, or that he didn't understand the work I have done. Turning this corner is a MAJOR breakthrough.

Now I have to put together the presentation- and since I have done more then was included in the manuscript- it isn't so obvious how to summarize all that effort on 3 veins of research. We'd both bandied back and forth on this last week (because what else would we talk about while coffee is brewing?).

Today I met with him to show him how I was thinking about it- good timing. The presentation is only just arriving in the shape I am thinking about, and I haven' committed so much time to make me defensive- in fact there are some elements I devoutly disliked. So we flipped through it, and had one of the best chats we've ever had. He made some suggestions I already incorporated (Dr. B:yes, this is good- your next slide should be ____. Me: *click* Yes? Dr. B: ooo, that's eerie. You are starting to think like me. That means it's time to graduate), he made some suggestions that make the presentation WAY better, and he was pleased with the way I had dealt with some of the data. He thinks I am bright, I think he's got a lot of good ideas, and together we are hoping to impress my committee. That's exactly how I wanted this to go, and I am feeling much more at peace with the process.

Tomorrow-much restructuring, practice talk Thursday, seminar and committee meeting Friday. Please hope for me that the committee is impressed, and I'll have more good news soon.

Exercisey!

So I still haven’t gotten on any Martial Art-based exercise program, but don’t think that means I’m idle. I’ve been doing some outdoor running and some indoor aerobics to get my heart rate up a few times a week. Running is *so much easier* now that I weigh less. I’ve noticed a few other changes, too. It’s easier for me to move around, and yesterday I went from laying on my stomach to standing up by walking my hands back toward my feet. And this time I got all the way up. I haven’t been able to do that before. Also, my wedding ring is dangerously close to falling off. I’m thinking about getting another one a half-size smaller. Maybe tungsten or titanium this time. Current low weight: 206 pounds. Leveling off, but still room to grow. Or shrink, I guess.

My latest exercise escapade has been ‘barefoot running’. Which I’m actually not doing barefoot. I have some old waders which offer excellent ‘pebble and asphalt’ protection, without offering a lot of foot support, which is the idea. It forces you to run on your toes, which is a serious calf workout, let me tell you. But the idea is that running shoes ‘allow’ you to run on your heels, stomping down with enough protection that it doesn’t hurt to run that way. But unfortunately, that means that all the impact is either absorbed by your shoes or by your *knees*. A little rough, in the long term. Barefoot running means you land on the balls of your feet. Any other running method will feel really weird. That means you have a much longer impact time and much more impact is absorbed by your feet and calves. It’s definitely a different mode of running. We’ll see how it works out.

I eventually want to get back into some form of ‘exercise inspiration’, whether martial arts-based or otherwise. I never exercised until I had some reason to, and that used to be Tae Kwon Do or some other martial art. I do it now for the health, and because I get really tired if I don’t, but it’s nice to have something else to work for. I’m actually considering taking drum lessons. I know that every time I sit down at my (electronic) drums for more than a few minutes, I work up a serious sweat. Could be something else neat to try.

Speaking of music, I’ve started doing that, as well, though in a decidedly roundabout way. I’ve actually gone back to my old music theory textbooks, which are great because they offer *tons* of examples and exercises to work through, and I’m re-learning everything again, from simple part-writing and chord selection all the way through writing simple Piano music. I’m hoping to start with some simple melodies and chords, written properly, and then get into the strange synthesizers and filters of the rest of my ‘studio’. We’ll see how it goes. If I make anything that sounds good, I’ll put it up here.

And on a final note, I’m sitting on the couch, and Tigger is laying next to me. Nagano is laying on the back of the couch above my head. They’re both asleep. Very cute.

-N

Valentine's meme- Nearly 8 Years

The latest meme on Facebook, which is sure to hit full stride this weekend, is for people to put as their "status" how long they've been together. This of course elicits a series, of gushy comments from all your girl friends (haven't seen a lot of guys participating in this one). I won't indulge in this one- I don't like broadcasting that info in that format, and when I tallied up the numbers, I noticed Matt and I have been together a really long time- for people our age. The people we were when we first met seem so different from who we are now, it's embarrassing to think we were ever so sophomoric, or that being that young was so long ago. And it seems unfair to take all that and make it one little number.

Nearly 8 years ago, when Matt and I starting seeing each other, I was 18 years old, I thought I might never graduate high school (in a melodramatic teen kind of way), I got my first job, and was trying to learn how to be independent while I waited to head out to college. And Matt was this sweet guy who had funny stories, a quiet but joyful sense of humor and was really into crazy adventures. Well, they seemed crazy to the 18 yr old me. I felt really lucky to get to hang out with a guy like that, for just a little while. See, I didn't want to get to invested in the whole thing, because I knew I was going to WWU in the fall. And Matt was going to be transferring away from UAS then too. It was early in that first summer when we realized we would both be at Western.

When we moved to Bellingham, I was an energetic but clueless freshman, and Matt was happy to be my knowledgeable and experienced counterpart- he never got lost on campus, he knew about all these cool hang outs on and off campus and he wanted to share all this fun with me. Could a girl get so lucky? He had a house, with a proper kitchen where I could go and cook, or just not be around 20 girls. I like to think he benefited form having me around too- I dragged him through Calc 2, we would go on suburban adventures together and a loner like him really likes to attention.

We've actually been married for 3 and a half years- which also seems like I long time. I thought by now I'd be really good at it. Matt told someone over the phone yesterday that "my wife says the streets in Oakland are still bad." And I was a little surprised to find he was talking about me! Being married in grad school is hard- there are such demands on my time, I don't get to commit as much time as I would like to it. Matt is sleeping off a cold this morning, and I am about to head in to work for the afternoon, which breaks my heart a bit. But it is clear that being married is WAY better then being single, and that we can still find ways to be important for each other in our new life together.

Yesterday morning I got an email from Matt at work that he had stopped out in the suburbs, and bought a new set of winter wheels. He threw down towels over the slush to change out the tires , and carefully covered the back seat in an old sheet before piling in the old tires and heading off to work. So yes, he still has funny stories and crazy adventures, and I still feel really lucky to get to hang out with him. I still wonder about what kind of job I'll ever get, although now I am more confident that I won't end up somewhere I can't be happy.

We don't have plans to celebrate this weekend, but will probably do something fun together this week (my vote is for Ethiopian food), to celebrate Valentine's Day. For all the rest of you- Happy Valentine's Day!

Snowpocalypse III: Sleetmageddon

I am writing this update purely because I wanted to type that title.

We got some weather today. It's been pretty chilly, and today we actually got some sleet. It sounded really neat bouncing off the ground and all the leaves. Like a world filled with pop rocks.

We got our new, very pretty shower measured for glass. We're going with framed glass, all nice and clear, so it should look really nice. I'll put pictures up when the whole things is done.

Jess and I are hoping to vacation in Europe this year. It's looking like we'll go with a tour company, because there's a lot of places we want to see and figuring out how to navigate around so many different countries sounds pretty tricky. Anyone who thinks or knows differently should feel free to chime in.

-N

Snowpocalypse! Again!

The storm continues-Campus is still closed- due largely to a lack of plowing, and will be closed again tomorrow. The list of services closed this week goes on and on. And once I started looking at it- I got really ticked off. Sure, it is a hassle for me that Pitt is closed. But the Food Bank? Meals on Wheels can't deliver either. The National Guard as been here since the weekend, and only today have they been coordinating with emergency services and the mayors office to do things like deliver prescriptions and take people to dialysis. Sure, 18 inches is a lot of snow, especially here where we don't often get it. But the suburbs have been cleared since Saturday afternoon.

Really, this is getting old. There were 18 inches of snow on Saturday- we didn't see a snow plow until yesterday! And why did the city up its effort to deal with the snow? Because we are supposed to get 4-8 inches tonight! Matt hasn't been able to get to work- not an ideal use of limited vacation days. I went in for a few hours today, but scurried back home when the snow started. The buses make a very valiant effort to keep the city moving despite a poor recovery effort- but do you know how scary it is to be on a bus when its wheels start spinning?

Of course Matt and I are fine- we aren't any of the thousands of people without power. We've been acting hunkered down, eating high energy food like bread and nuts as if we were starving. But in truth, we've run out of things to shovel and have only made a dent in our Superbowl Party food. On Matt's last grocery store trip, he bought grapefruit. The main problem for us is not being able to drive, and being asked to keep off the roads "so they can get cleared." I hope City Hall has heard enough outrage to get us back to work by Thursday... grumble grumble.

Our New Shower

I've been super busy this weekend, homeowner activities mostly. But I thought I'd take a moment to throw up some pictures of the process for fixing up our shower, in case anyone was interested. Are you interested? Yeah, I thought you were.

So here's the 'before' picture. The plan was to take down the wall and expand the shower. So let's go through and see how it all worked, out.








Day 1: demolition. This is what happens when you let some contractors take out a wall. That tall copper stuff in the middle, that's the old plumbing for the old shower, just sticking out of the ground. All done nice and neat.






Day 2: Plumbing. Here you can see where they opened a hole in the floor and moved some pipes around. The drain, primarily, and also some pipes running up into the new wall. They also went in through the ceiling on the first floor to get to some extra pipes.




Day 3: Less impressive today, mostly patching up the holes they made after running plumbing the day before.





Day 5: The shower pan has been put in and the valves put on the wall. Big, manly valves, too, nothing like the piddly little mixer we had before. BEEFY!



Day 6: They started putting the 'hardy backer' on the wall. It's a cross between drywall and concrete. They also started building the bench.











Day 7: More hardy backer, and you can see the shower boxes up in the wall, and the completion of the benches.






Day 8: Tile! Our guy stayed extra long today and look at the progress. It's actually starting to look like a shower, eh?






Day 9: Finishing the tile and putting in the grout. Good stuff. Very pretty.






One last picture. I took this after telling Jessie not to turn on the water. She then turned on the water anyway. It worked for a while, but then we couldn't turn it off. I had to hold the showerhead to divert the water down into the drain. It made a bit of a mess. Eventually, we got it off, but it took some finessing.

The next day we went off to go hiking, and on the way there we got a call from the contractor. They wanted to make sure we knew that they were missing a shim to properly attach the handle to the valve. We shouldn't turn on the shower because it would be really hard to turn off. Jess had to pull over because she was laughing too hard. So, yeah, I get to tease her about that a lot.

Micro-News: We went hiking this weekend, just to get out and get some exercise. Very pretty hike along a river, all swollen from the recent rain. I also had a bout of extreme productivity. I made a list of stuff to do that was 20 items long and got at least half of them crossed off, including replacing the flapper plugs for two different toilets so they don't leak anymore. Also some yard work. We're feeling better after being sick, too. I went to a fighter training studio to see what it was like now that I'm not doing Wing Tsun anymore. Lots of hard training, which was good, but the sparring was real boxing-style fighting, with real, proper hits and everything. I'm not sure if I liked it or not.

And that's enough for now. I'm tired.

-N

State of Emergency- We are survivors

Yesterday's recruiting weekend awkwardly coincided with a major Snow Storm. They are calling it the Snowpocalypse. We've got 18 inches on the ground, choking streets and crumbling trees. A state of emergency has been declared in our county, and the news says the National Guard has been deployed. Obviously, Matt and I are capable of handling ourselves in inclement weather, so please don't worry. On our street, we've been battling the snow and enjoying the change in scenery. We walked up the hill to see that the grocery store and not much else was open. We did have time to stop in and get some cupcakes from Dozens- which should sustain us through the worst of this.

While this put a major cramp on our recruiting plans (ie, no one was able to get TO the recruits today, as far as I know, and we many of them hand to push start cars to get back to the hotel last night), now that we don't have anything important to do we are having a lot of fun. Matt took some photos this morning, so you can also see the wonderland. If you are scanning headlines with anxiety, we are warm, we've got power and we're safe.

Here is the view of Forbes and Murray (major intersection) this morning. People were cross country skiing, and dragging kids in sleds up the middle of the street.

Does this change things?

It's recruiting season at school! Tomorrow starts the first interview weekend, everyone is always excited to meet the recruits, reminisce about their own interview experiences, and most importantly soak up some of the free food that is foisted on recruits. Their schedule is always the same for all three weekends- breakfast with the chair of the department, interview with faculty, student seminar over lunch, more faculty then happy hour, dinner and drinks (except at our school drinks = chocolate fondue at the Melting Pot). Most grad students get called in to help with at least one of these weekends in some way or another. This weekend I am a student liaison, which hypothetically means reaching out to the student to answer any questions before, during or after their visit, but practically means giving them one face to look for in the fuss and making sure they get places by the buddy system.

And I just found out today that I'll be called to service again in two weeks- I'll be giving the student seminar. It's not like the interviews were planned based on the seminar schedule, but I am flattered that they'll be seeing me talk regardless. And a little terrified, how do I explain my work in a way that would inspire someone else to join our department? I am not sure this is any different then giving the same seminar I would normally give- I've done a lot of work, some of it worked, I had a lot of help from a lot of people. What would make the school seem more appealing anyway?

This is just the current thing I am sinking time into that isn't "doing science." I stuck in some kind of interminal rut- and there is no way I am still huffing over not getting the AAAS fellowship. The whole nature of the fellowship is that is gives me a reason to leave and a focus for my aspirations, so the idea of not being eligible doesn't seem acceptable. After I wrote that blog post, I stole my courage and my info and went to talk to Dr. Boss. Tuesday I told him that this fellowship would move up my graduation schedule, and is it possible for me to graduate before Dec 15 2010? (but stay in the lab until the program starts in Fall 2011) He seemed a bit taken aback, no, 10 months is too soon (which I expected but was disappointing to hear anyway).

I should pause here to say that I didn't sleep more then 2 hours the night before, I was so sick nervous about having this conversation. It also took me all day to decide what I would say, and even then, I wanted to bring a puke bucket. See, I don't get a lot of direct or general feedback from my boss. It's possible he thinks I need 4 more years and remedial school before graduation, and that asking him about graduating might be the catalyst for him to detail all my failings. I really have no idea how he feels about my work.

But thanks to this WISC stuff we've talked about, I felt organized and I knew what I needed to get out of this conversation, besides rejection. I pressed him a little further- it is feasible for me to be looking for fellowships that start in Fall 2011? Will I be graduated before then? Well, yes actually. A few more months is a lot once you've been in the lab that long so that seems very do-able and right on schedule. *celebratory moonwalk* So chances are my undergrad will still graduate before me, but at least I won't have to carry on long without him.

Cooks Illustrated = Date Night

Seems like I've been spending a lot of time away from home these days. We have a standing Tuesday date with our most favorite friends, Wednesday I've been going to "Study Hall" (aka waffle/ice cream shop) to spend a couple hours working on writing, and this Thursday was WISC. Fridays I often get swept into an after work Happy Hour/ Dinner, so it can seem like ages go past before I get to hang out with just Matt. Which seems weird, since he is my favorite. For some reason this week felt especially busy- or maybe just bouncing back from being sick still- and I didn't feel like going out for a big to do, which suited Matt just fine.

Since I spent most of Saturday catching up on the latest Cooks Illustrated, we decided a good way to share the evening would be to make Cacio e Pepe and Brownie Sundaes. We've got access to things like imported cheese, and indulged in trying to find the Cooks Recommended brands for everything. Even though we had what amounts to cheese on noodles, Matt declared it the best meal we've made it ages, and I'll tend to agree. And it made us feel like real wizards too.
----
Another project that has come together recently is a new scratching post for Raoul. It's time to give him a more serious option then the cardboard scratcher- and rather then shell out the Petco prices, Matt hypothesized (correctly) that he could make something just as good for cheaper. What he has now is a 6 foot tall post, with two shelves and sisal wrapping, hooks to hang dangly ribbons and carpet up to the top. It gives Raoul a new vantage on the kitchen, a new window and is the new highest place in the apartment, so you can imagine he is quite fond of it. So, yes, the cat is certainly spoiled. It is a bit of a monstrosity, but it's not as if our apartment is crowded- and frankly he spends the most time here. I am hoping this will lead to a ceasefire with the furniture, or at least lay the groundwork for those negotiations.

And Matt enjoyed designing and building it. I helped a very little with the whole process. Seems I don't have much patience for this sort of thing, and my slipshod attitude was designing an eyesore. So, extra kudos to Mom and Dad for sticking to their bathroom project for significantly more then the 12 hours it took this to come together- the proof is surely in the pudding.

Other news, most recent WISC was a great success, we talked about management- with two main outcomes for me. One, I am trying to be a more empathetic manager to my undergrad (whose foot is in a boot to protect a broken toe, and decided to use this week to work on summer fellowships- since I got to surprise him with another application last week), and two, I am trying to see myself as the manager for my project. Next up, we are going to try negotiation. I may end up hosting this one... I also taught again, for the last time, last week. This week I am going to let these students assess the content, and me, and the course, and get some good feedback from them. I am spending a lot of time pondering how to elicit this.

Which is silly, because I should be spending a lot of time pondering my annual seminar! And my thesis committee meeting! But I am feeling so jaded since before Christmas, I can't really connect "working really hard" with "impressing my committee so they want me to graduate." And it's hard to talk to Dr. Boss for more then 5 minutes at a time these days and.... I just don't want to keep working for more years.... ugh. Winter is a hard enough time, without trying to muster up enthusiasm for something like one's thesis. Actually, I think I am in mourning, I can't seem to find a solution where I graduate in time to get to the 2011 AAAS Policy Fellowship. Sigh. The seminar is the 19th, so think of me fondly then.