A random smattering of summer pics

 Ally and Uncle Paul meet Hooper the horse at Nana and Gran-Gran's farm

 Ally walks Penny the chocolate lab on Nana and Gran-Gran's back porch

 Amelia has discovered that she has hair on her head, and often has a chunk of it in her right hand

 In the mountains of NC

The dead tree stump that Ben dug up in our front yard.  It has now been replaced by a young Japanese maple tree.

Dancing Queen

We went to Ben's cousin's wedding last weekend up at Virginia Tech.  This was Ally's first wedding experience, and she had a blast.  She and her cousin Rachel danced for almost the entire time at the reception.  Here is a video capturing some of their moves.  A little while in, you will see me and my father-in-law also enter the dance floor.  However, I have to say that our moves are not quite as cool as Ally's and Rachel's.

Picnic!

 Picnic in Carolina North Forest tonight!  I can't believe this place is a six-minute drive from our home, and right in the middle of Chapel Hill.

 ... a six-minute drive, plus a 10 - 30 minute walk, depending on the speed of your three-year-old.

Speaking of the three-year-old, she got a lot faster on the way back.  Could it be the peanut-butter-and-honey-and-jelly sandwich she had for dinner?  (Her idea.)

Small breakthrough

Amelia. Last night. Slept 7:30pm-5:30am.

Hopefully this is not an isolated incident.


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Ally soundbites

(Note that all conversation transcribed here is a rough quotation)

First, a conversation between Ben and Ally, where Ally is asking Ben how we transformed the office into her current room.

Ally:  "Daddy, what did you do to my room?"
Ben (apparently a little tired of being asked this question repeatedly):  "Nothing, Ally.  Absolutely nothing."
Ally (speaking with an incredulous tone):  "Seriously?"

Second, a conversation between Ben and Ally last week, while I was working late in the lab.

Ben:  "Ally, Mommy won't be home tonight because she has to work in the lab."
Ally:  "Daddy, why won't Mommy be home?"
Ben:  "Because she is doing a long experiment today."
Ally (after a brief silence):  "Daddy, is Mommy getting too old to be doing this?"

Nerdy joke for the day

What do you get when you cross a sheep with a goat?

Sheep Goat Sine Theta!

(I had not thought about this joke for probably 10 years until one of Ben's former physics students started a blog with this name to chronicle her first year as a teacher. Ah, takes me back!)


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Funny exchange

The doorbell rings.  I answer it.

Julius the tree man:  "Hi.  Is your mom home?"
Me, after a couple seconds of silence: "Um, I am the mom."
Julius, the tree man:  "Oh I am so sorry!  You just look so young!"
Me:  "Thanks!"

It might have had something to do with the fact that I was still wearing my candy-cane pajama pants and a t-shirt when I answered the door, and I wasn't holding Amelia at the time.  I guess I was dressed like a teenager who had slept in until mid-morning.  Still though, I was flattered.

Finding my Olympic team calling

I love the Olympics.  I love watching the Olympics.  I think it would be so cool to be in the Olympics.  If I could do any Olympic sport, I think I'd either be a gymnast or a springboard diver.  Of course, both would require me to be about 10-15 years younger than I currently am and I'd actually have to know how to flip and dive at the elite level, but hey, one can dream.  But consider this question, is there any sport that you could do right now, at your current age and physical fitness and go to the Olympics?
I think I've found it!  The coxwain of a rowing team!
Check it out.  The coxwain has to be petite, able to keep everyone in time, yell loud, and be motivational.  They don't actually do any of the rowing, although they do have to steer the boat.  I think I could do that!  I'm about the same size as the coxwain of the 8-woman US boat that won the gold yesterday.  I am a musician, so I can keep time.  I can yell.  And I've had lots of practice motivating people during VO2peak tests, which are pretty physically grueling.  Now, I've never actually tried to steer a boat, so that would definitely take practice.  And I'm not saying that being a coxwain is easy, as I've never done it before so I can't make that claim.  But I think I could give it a go for sure. 
Changing gears slightly, I've been watching all the Olympic gymnastics.  It was so cool to see the women's team get the gold medal, 16 years after the Mag 7 did it in Atlanta.  Those girls are tough, but so cute!  It was unfortunate that Jordyn Wieber (the reigning all around World Champion) didn't get to compete in the all around finals because of the two-per-country rule.  And it was also unfortunate that Aly Raisman lost the tie-breaker for the all around bronze.  Gymnastics sure does have some odd rules.  But hats off to Gabby for winning the all around gold medal, making this the third Olympics in a row that an American woman has seized that crown.  It is crazy to think that she is only 16 years old and is now the idol of dozens of little girls.  It's like one day you're an athlete and the next day you are Olympic royalty.  I can only imagine.  But anyway, I was watching some of the videos on the NBC Olympics website and there was one of Nastia Liukin (the 2008 all around gold medalist) talking about her performance at this year's Olympic Trials, and how she could have withdrawn after crashing on bars.  But she didn't because she has always been taught to finish what she starts, even if things aren't going well.  That phrase really struck a chord with me, as I am at the end of my dissertation experience (and therefore my PhD), and many times recently, I have felt tempted to quit, to pass my data off to someone else, to clean out my office and never set foot in my lab again.  But I too am not a quitter, and I know that leaving now would only be the easy way out.  After all these years of school and hard work, I too must finish what I've started.  So thanks Nastia for giving me a little Olympic inspiration to keep the dream alive.

The accidental pottymounth: When rhyming goes awry

Ally is big into rhyming words these days.  She is also big into making up her own songs.  Sounds innocent enough.  Well, consider the following scenario:

We were recently in Kentucky for a visit with Ben's family.  Ben's dad took all the grandkids in the truck one evening to ride up the road to get the mail.  One of Ally's favorite TV shows is a show on PBS called Caillou, and there is a song that starts out, "We're driving in a car, car, car.  We're going very far, far, far, " or something like it.  So Ally decides to adapt the song to the current vehicle she was in, and here's what came out:

"We're driving in a truck, truck, truck.  We're going very f**k, f**k, f**k."

I am not joking.

Now, let me be clear.  I don't cuss in front of my kids.  So Ally has never heard me or anyone else use that particular 4-letter word.  I think this was just an instance where her creativity accidentally led her to stumble upon a particularly bad cuss word.  I didn't hear her directly, but when Ben told me about it (out of Ally's earshot), I will admit, I couldn't help but laugh pretty hard (although small part of me felt a little horrified too).  Luckily she has abandoned that particular song version, but if it comes up again, we may need to have a conversation.