31 Today

I don't feel old enough to be in my "early thirties." I guess that goes to show that age is just a number.

More overdue photos

Here are some more overdue pics from last month-Halloween and my parents' visit.

Trick-or-treating: Elaina and Victoria, and Ally and me. It was the girls' first trick-or-treating experience. I'll bet they thought it was kind of weird walking up to random people's houses and collecting candy (little do they know that in a few years, they will think this is awesome).

Minnie Mouse and UNC cheerleader on our front steps.

I even dressed up too, as an astronaut. I'm wearing my old flight suit from Space Camp 1997.

Ally loves to have books read to her, so here begins a series of photos of her being read to; first by Ben

Then with my mom.

Next with me.

And lastly with my dad, whom Ally now calls Pa-Pa.

Family photo.

Ally took a shine to my dad's LSU hat. They got her to say "Go Tigers!"

We also visited Andy and Michelle's farm, which we hadn't done in about 6 months. Since then, they have had some animal turnover, with sheep, chicken, and duck comings and goings, and unfortunately the passing of dear Linus the Beagle last Easter. Here's Ally meets one of their new dogs, a rather large and jovial Anatolian Shepherd named Basil.

Ally admires a lop-eared rabbit.

Petting said lop-eared rabbit.

I couldn't resist a cuddle with Abe, the other Anatolian Shepherd.

At the park near our house, swinging on the swingset.

Numbers, Letters, Shapes, and Sentences

One of Ally's favorite toys is her shape-sorter. We actually have two of them; one that belonged to me when I was little, and the Tupperware shape-sorter that looks like a ball and has 10 shapes to sort (one of my fabulous E-bay finds). She has gotten pretty good at picking up a shape and finding its appropriate slot, although more intricate shapes like the pentagon and hexagon are still challenging.

Also, Ally is very much into numbers and letters. She likes to play with her letter fridge magnets as well as the letters that stick to the sides of the bathtub when they get wet. She knows the letter "O" and enjoys the alphabet song. She also likes to point out letters on clothing, particularly the letters on my University of Kentucky t-shirt.

Ally also counts to 10 in both English and Spanish. But apparently she does not believe that certain numbers exist. Here is her sequence in English:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10

And in Spanish:

1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10

Evidently, 7 and 9 do not exist in English, and 5, 6, 7, and 9 don't exist in Spanish.

And to finish, Ally said her first inteligible sentence the other day that consisted of more than 2 words. I accidentally spilled my drink at the dinner table, which Ally observed and said, "Mommy no-no agua." It was pretty cute.

Long overdue cabin photos

Last month, we took a weekend trip to Boone with our friends Matt and Victoria and their almost-2-year-old daughter Elaina. It was a much needed weekend getaway, from both the hot weather and our usual surroundings. We stayed in a cool mountain cabin, cooked our own food, went on several nature hikes, and soaked in a hot tub after Ally and Elaina went to bed for the night. Additionally, Ben and Matt challenged each other to a series of ping-pong matches, in which I believe Matt was the overall winner. Here are a few pics from the weekend.

Victoria pointing out a huge waterfall. This particular hike was pretty strenuous in that there was a lot of unsure footing (not ideal if there are toddlers in tow). Ben and Victoria did this part of the hike themselves while Matt and I stayed behind with the girls.

Matt, Victoria, and Elaina at another waterfall.

Ben, me, and Ally with a small waterfall in the background.

The two families.

Me and Ally. What transpired after this shot was that Ally accidentally sat down in a very large puddle of water and consequently had to do the return trip in soaking wet socks and shoes with no pants. She did not seem to mind too much.

Me and Ally after eating lunch on a rock in the middle of a stream.

Ally and Elaina. They are doing very typically girly things here-Ally is browsing though an issue of People Magazine while Elaina admires herself in her mommy's flip-flops.

Ally and Elaina in a big chair.

10K race

I ran the Carrboro 10K on Saturday, my first race since April 2008. It was a lot of fun, and the weather was perfect. I did set a 10K PR, but only by 3 seconds. Still, a PR is a PR. I am already looking forward to training for another race; maybe something in the spring.

Science terms that don't sound so scientific

It is pretty apparent that every profession has its own set of jargon; science and medicine being no different. And I will admit, I do occasionally have fun throwing around phrases like VO2max, gluconeogenesis, lymphocytopenia, and respiratory exchange ratio. But I have noticed that there are some scientific phrases that, well, don't really sound all that scientific. These below all happen to come from astronomy:

Big Bang
Theory of Everything
Dark Matter
Black Hole
Red Giant
Redshift
Brown Dwarf

In the astronomers' defense though, at least they are using terms that actually directly tell you what they are talking about. Maybe this is because astronomers are more "down to earth?" (rimshot)

I know, I know, bad pun! But I couldn't resist!

I'll bet my other scientist friends out there can think of some science terms that don't sound so science-ish (if so, leave me a comment!). A good follow-up post might be "Science terms that would make good band names."

I made the committment. . .

to run the Carrboro 10K on October 2nd. I just pressed the send button for the registration site. It will be my first road race since April 2008. I had been going back and forth about whether I wanted to do it, because part of me has been wanting to run a race for a while, but the other part of me wasn't sure because I don't want to post a bad time (I mean, if I'm going to pay an entry fee, I want it to be worth it). However, I started increasing my mileage again a few weeks ago and added tempo runs back in, and what do you know, it has been going better than I expected. I last ran this particular race 3 years ago, so I'd love to improve my time and set a new 10K PR. We'll see how it goes; if anything, it will be a lot of fun to be amidst the racing atmosphere, go for a nice run with a bunch of other runners, and chow down on post-race goodies afterwards.