Back to the homefront

We arrived back in Chapel Hill this afternoon, after spending a week in KY with Ben's family. As always, it was a ton of fun. The gathering consisted of Ben's parents, Ben's two older brothers and their wives, Ben's younger sister, us, and our 3-year old nephew. Oh, and how can I forget the 4 horses and 5 dogs! The highliights of our stay included playing lots of games, watching movies, cooking, exchanging presents, quail hunting, and horseback riding. A bit of explanation on the latter two activities. Ben's dad and brothers are really into bird hunting. Ben's parents live on a 104-acre farm out in the middle of nowhere, so it makes a great place to practice shooting. So anyway, they bought a box of 10 live quail, planted them in various parts around the farm, and Ben, his dad, and two brothers proceeded to find them. I must mention that this could not have been possible without the help of Huck, the Brittany Spaniel. My sister-in-law Anne and I tagged along because we wanted to see Huck in action. All in all, the boys did quite well, shooting 7 of the 10 quail. They are quite yummy when grilled.

The horseback riding was definitely on of the best highlights for me. Ben's parents own 4 horses (2 ponies, a thoroughbred, and a Dutch warmblood). Ben's dad is very big into horseback riding, particularly dressage, and has won a few ribbons at competitions. I really like horses, and I've ridden a few times, but nothing fancy. Anyway, I asked Marty (Ben's dad) if he'd give me a riding lesson on Pirioso the Dutch warmblood (not sure if that's how you spell his name). So first we brushed a bunch of dirt off Pirioso, cleaned his hooves, put some boots around his front hooves, and got all his gear on. Marty rode Pirioso around for about 10 minutes to get him warmed up, and even showed off some of his dressage steps. Then I got on Pirioso, and Marty had me do some balance exercises; apparently riding a horse is all about balance. Marty had Pirioso on a lunge line which is a very long reign that he was holding so that I wouldn't have to use reigns, and also for control in case Pirioso got other ideas in his head :) Anyway, I practiced balance while Pirioso walked. Then we kicked things up a notch. Marty taught me how to post, which is where you intentionally lift yourself up and down in the saddle while the horse trots. That was pretty hard to do at first, particularly since I had never been on a horse who was going faster than a walk, and you have to time your post with the horse's gait. But after I while I started to get the hang of it and it was really really fun! Afterwards, I led Pirioso back to his stall, and we removed all his gear and gave him some carrots for being such a good horse.

I didn't take a whole lot of pics while I was there, but once I dig my camera out of my luggage, I'll see what I can post.

More excitement on the homefront

Yesterday was filled with more housewifely duties. I did laundry and ran errands. I did find some really good dried mangoes at Earthfare, and I bought Ben's Christmas presents, as well as a new pair of jeans for myself. Last night, we exchanged gifts because we'll be out of town for Christmas. Ben gave me a nice jewelry box and I gave him a pair of gloves and a router.

Tomorrow, we're leaving for KY to be with Ben's family for Christmas, so today will be filled with more laundry, packing, and Christmas-cookie baking.

Excitement on the homefront

As I said yesterday, I was going to start off my semester break by sleeping in late. I am true to my word, as I did not get up until 11am this morning. HA! Actualy, that is pretty late, and while it is nice to sleep in, it does make me feel like I've wasted half the day.

Anyway, now that I'm on semester break for real, I have a lot of time to myself. I did accomplish some important housewifely duties, like cleaning the downstairs while watching Montel. I got some quality piano-practicing time in too (I'm learning a Clementi Sonatina). I am also enjoying my new pair of running shoes that I bought last week, along with the warm weather we've been having lately. I decided to spice up my run today by doing intervals (short periods of sprinting followed by a longer period of jogging). Generally when I go running, I do what would probably be categorized as "Long Slow Distance" and that can get a bit boring after a while. So today I did a 4-mile run, with miles 1 and 4 at a steady pace, while miles 2 and 3 were the intervals. Since I run in my neighborhood, I divided the intervals into timed increments (30-second sprints followed by 1-minute jogs) rather than distance increments; its easier that way. It was actually really fun, and I think I'll try to incorporate it into my regular running routine.

As for tomorrow's plan, I think I'll go grocery shopping (I'm on the prowl for some really good dried mangoes) and buy Ben's Christmas presents.

Perks of being a student

As much as I don't particularly enjoy studying, and as stressful as exams can be, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel; i.e., 3 weeks of semester break with no schoolwork to be done. I turned in my last sets of grades today, so I will be taking full advantage of my freedom. I will start with sleeping late tomorrow morning.

We built this city on wheat and ore

A couple months ago, our downstairs neighbors introduced us to this really cool board game called Settlers of Catan. It is sort of like a combination between Monopoly and Risk. As a settler on the island of Catan, you accumulate resources (wool, wheat, ore, brick, and wood) in order to trade them in for settlements, cities, and roads, which give you a certain number of points. You can also purchase Development Cards, which allow you do things like build the largest army or steal other people's resources. The first person to 10 points wins the game and becomes the new ruler of Catan. We played with some other grad school friends a couple nights ago, and I am the current Queen of Catan. I forsee peace and harmony throughout my dominion, well, at least until the next game. . .

Merry Christmas from the 1st year exphys grad students!

Back row l-r: Erica Cooper, Karla Gravitt, me, Brittany Yates
Front row l-r: JJ Duke, Mike Anderson, Mark Berry

You know you need to unwind when. . .

1. In the morning, you wake up in a panic, thinking that you've slept through an exam, even though your exams are finished.

2. You have two dreams in the same week where you're cantoring at Mass, and somehow you've lost your ability to read music and carry a tune, not to mention that the music is in a completely different language, sort of resembling Latin but not really.

I'm sure I'll think of some others!

"Not cool, SPSS, not cool! Don't do this to me now!"

That would be me, talking to the computer while frantically trying to finish my stats exam before the 4pm deadline on Tuesday. However, at about 3:30pm, SPSS decided it wanted to start playing games with me, like deciding not to show any p-values on the output. I was not amused. But after copying my data into another window and re-running the analysis, SPSS went back to behaving properly. Nice little statistics software. Want a cookie?

One semester finished!

Well, I made it through my first semester as a graduate student. I had 3 exams, and they were all squished into a 3-day period. I had my sports nutrition exam bright and early at 8am last Saturday morning. Exercise physiology was next at 8am on Monday morning, and my take-home statistics exam was due on Tuesday afternon. Boy was I glad when I handed in my stats exam!

Not only did I have the joy of taking exams, but I am also having the pleasure of proctoring and grading exams for the classes that I TA. Tomorrow I am proctoring two exams, so I had better go and practice my "don't you even think about cheating on this test" stare!