Friday Morning: Give comprehensive presentation regarding: all the problems I encountered in my field work [Title: Lost in Translation(al Research)]
Friday Afternoon: Scurry off to Ithaca (Dylan: "All Done Car")
Friday Evening, 7, 8, and 9pm: Put Dylan to bed
Friday Evening, 9:30pm: Attend 10th reunion, speak to several people I am not married to
Friday Evening, 11:00pm: Back at the house: Break up the party, wrestle Dylan to bed
Saturday Morning: Re-present presentation for family, enhanced by hooking computer up to new HDTV and also by intense grilling by: family members
Saturday Morning, again: Leave Aaron and Dylan in Ithaca to drive to a wedding in New Hampshire, home of the two lane winding road
One Hour After Arrival: Attend wedding (Congrats guys!)
Meanwhile: Aaron and Dylan attend more reunion activities, Dylan declared cutest child in secret unspoken ballot
Sunday Morning: Back to Ithaca, more driving through alarmingly deep waters during a sudden thunderstorm
Sunday Afternoon: Watch Olympics on HDTV, which I always thought was a scam but now I understand is a way to bring families together by getting everyone parked in front of the TV far more than usual
Sunday Afternoon, later: Back to Rochester, get caught in traffic for much of the way, like we live in a major metropolitan area or something
Sunday Evening: Move out of my office at school using Dylan's little red wagon, narrowly beat newest thunderstorm to rapidly descend this weekend
Sunday Evening, later: Bed! bed bed bed bed bed night night
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Friday, August 08, 2008
Tip
If you marry someone in your high school class you will always have someone to talk to at your high school reunion.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
the artful dylan
We are heading out town this weekend in a convoluted plan that involves all of us going to Ithaca and time with all three sets of grandparents and then a side trip for me to a wedding in New Hampshire. I have been spending so much time working at my computer in the evenings that spending time packing tonight feels almost luxurious. And working on a talk I'm giving tomorrow. Also, moving out of my office at school. That feels less luxurious.
***********
Dylan says her name all the time now. It is indistinguishable from "dinner" so you have to be on your guard to catch it. It is used most often in the phrase "Dylan help." She actually is quite helpful because when she is helping she is occupying herself with an activity other than "clinging to my leg and whining." Actually she is so fastidious that assigning her repetitive boring tasks is usually a wild success. I often generate a never ending pile of her laundry that needs to be brought to her room, which she will shuttle over piece by piece. Last time I did this I went in her room to put it in her drawers and couldn't find it because she had already shoved it all in one of the open cubbies in her room. Today when she found an empty box that had had some snack food in it she broke it down unprompted and put it in the recycling. This morning I was looking for Snuffy's food dish and wondered aloud where it was. She was like Car? And she was right, we had had it in the car the night before when we went to the park. She remembers other stuff too--this morning I was reminiscing about a bike ride we had a full week ago where we had a picnic by the canal, and I figured she wasn't really following but it was still nice to talk about. But then she said Ducks!, which I hadn't mentioned but we had spent a while talking about them while we were there and haven't seen since. It still feels bizarre to have her be so...sentient.
***********
I am starting to notice a pattern here...
***********
Dylan says her name all the time now. It is indistinguishable from "dinner" so you have to be on your guard to catch it. It is used most often in the phrase "Dylan help." She actually is quite helpful because when she is helping she is occupying herself with an activity other than "clinging to my leg and whining." Actually she is so fastidious that assigning her repetitive boring tasks is usually a wild success. I often generate a never ending pile of her laundry that needs to be brought to her room, which she will shuttle over piece by piece. Last time I did this I went in her room to put it in her drawers and couldn't find it because she had already shoved it all in one of the open cubbies in her room. Today when she found an empty box that had had some snack food in it she broke it down unprompted and put it in the recycling. This morning I was looking for Snuffy's food dish and wondered aloud where it was. She was like Car? And she was right, we had had it in the car the night before when we went to the park. She remembers other stuff too--this morning I was reminiscing about a bike ride we had a full week ago where we had a picnic by the canal, and I figured she wasn't really following but it was still nice to talk about. But then she said Ducks!, which I hadn't mentioned but we had spent a while talking about them while we were there and haven't seen since. It still feels bizarre to have her be so...sentient.
***********
I am starting to notice a pattern here...
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Friday, August 01, 2008
Back, for now
Hey! I actually thought to myself today, "I miss my blog." (That makes me sound cool and mysterious, right?) I have been so oddly devoted to posting every day, and usually I only miss days when things get crazy around here (= we are traveling and Dylan stops sleeping) and as of a couple weeks ago it's been two years of Bleisenblog. So. Taking even a few days off like that to do other work on the computer was weird. But I spent so many days completely focused on getting my projects written up that by the end of a long long evening the idea of one more mouse click was enough to send me over the precipice to the raging tantrum that's always just around the corner here at two-year-old Bleisenblog. Or is that Dylan? Actually, she doesn't have many tantrums. She has other ways. Most of which involve slugging us. Now that she can pronounce sowwy we're making some progress.
Anyway, this afternoon I tossed my adviser 130 pages of rough, rough, half-finished draft and discretely sprinted the other way. There was a split second of relief, but I have finished maybe 60% of what I need to do with it to get a real draft done, so it's not that exciting, and regular posting next week is still on probation. You know what is exciting? This shirt I got Dylan yesterday at the farmer's market.
Anyway, this afternoon I tossed my adviser 130 pages of rough, rough, half-finished draft and discretely sprinted the other way. There was a split second of relief, but I have finished maybe 60% of what I need to do with it to get a real draft done, so it's not that exciting, and regular posting next week is still on probation. You know what is exciting? This shirt I got Dylan yesterday at the farmer's market.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
This, this, and the other this
Dylan has learned that "this" can substitute for any word she doesn't know or can't say. Hence a weekend of sort of existential conversations.
"This! This! Thisthisthisthisthis!"
"Dylan, what is this?"
"THIS! Me me this."
"Okay, your this. All the this is yours."
She's also started making a valiant effort to say her own name, beyond the DILL that's she's been doing for a long time. It comes out as DIHmuttermutter so I didn't figure out what she was saying until she did it at a picture of herself this morning.
************
We did the full kid-in-summer stuff again this weekend. Saturday we went to an air show, so it was nice to finally show Dylan what Daddy does at work all day. It was a lot more than just death defying plane stunts (where more = massive military recruitment effort), although they did tend to dominate the experience. In fact, the goal of just about every plane seemed to be to get us absolutely convinced that it was going to plummet into the earth any second, but no! He's (I'm pretty sure these were men we're talking about here) gone up again! That careening must have been on purpose! Irritatingly, they wouldn't put the schedule online for security purposes. Nor could you bring your own food, also for security reasons, which did indeed avoid the danger of paying a reasonable price for your lunch. We went and poked around a couple of HUGE cargo planes they had lying around, although that led to some confusion as to when the up up sky part was going to happen, now that we were on a plane and everything. Also, I joined the army, as long as I was there.
Today we went to Seabreeze. I can't believe I hadn't been there the whole time we've lived here, but that's all behind us now. What you don't realize until you get the general public in a bathing suit is that everyone in the world has a tattoo. Or maybe that's just what we epidemiologists call selection bias (sorry, sorry too much science immersion lately). It was really crowded and we had to quickly remove Dylan from two of the three rides she asked to go on (due to: freaking out), but the third one, cars going around a track, was awesome and she was so happy and proud. She did laps around, but not quite in, the water play area for a good long time and every time she inadvertently got wet she got this ridiculous shocked expression on her face and would pause and look for me to make sure I had seen what just happened.
"This! This! Thisthisthisthisthis!"
"Dylan, what is this?"
"THIS! Me me this."
"Okay, your this. All the this is yours."
She's also started making a valiant effort to say her own name, beyond the DILL that's she's been doing for a long time. It comes out as DIHmuttermutter so I didn't figure out what she was saying until she did it at a picture of herself this morning.
************
We did the full kid-in-summer stuff again this weekend. Saturday we went to an air show, so it was nice to finally show Dylan what Daddy does at work all day. It was a lot more than just death defying plane stunts (where more = massive military recruitment effort), although they did tend to dominate the experience. In fact, the goal of just about every plane seemed to be to get us absolutely convinced that it was going to plummet into the earth any second, but no! He's (I'm pretty sure these were men we're talking about here) gone up again! That careening must have been on purpose! Irritatingly, they wouldn't put the schedule online for security purposes. Nor could you bring your own food, also for security reasons, which did indeed avoid the danger of paying a reasonable price for your lunch. We went and poked around a couple of HUGE cargo planes they had lying around, although that led to some confusion as to when the up up sky part was going to happen, now that we were on a plane and everything. Also, I joined the army, as long as I was there.
Today we went to Seabreeze. I can't believe I hadn't been there the whole time we've lived here, but that's all behind us now. What you don't realize until you get the general public in a bathing suit is that everyone in the world has a tattoo. Or maybe that's just what we epidemiologists call selection bias (sorry, sorry too much science immersion lately). It was really crowded and we had to quickly remove Dylan from two of the three rides she asked to go on (due to: freaking out), but the third one, cars going around a track, was awesome and she was so happy and proud. She did laps around, but not quite in, the water play area for a good long time and every time she inadvertently got wet she got this ridiculous shocked expression on her face and would pause and look for me to make sure I had seen what just happened.
Friday, July 25, 2008
In which Aaron stars as a pillow
We may be in store for some light posting in the next couple of weeks as I try to get as much of my project written up as I can. We'll see how it goes, but I'm not promising anything. 
This is what happens post-swimming
This is what happens post-swimming
Live Action Shot Get Your Truckxx Here
They driveway has needed replacing since we moved in. Five years ago. The day has finally come.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Swimming, swimming, in the swimming pool. And also the road.
Dylan has now officially gone from slightly afraid of the pool to all enthusiasm all the time. So we've been trying to take her swimming a lot this summer, and when my parents came to spend the night this evening we thought a trip to the hotel pool would make sense.
That was incorrect. I see now that we were wrong. The god in charge of Dylan's swimming career caught wind of our intentions and thought to himself, water eh? You think the kid needs water? I'll give you water. And he did.
If you will refer to the part in the second paragraph about "all three northbound lanes of Route 390" you will also know the exact route we took from our house to the hotel. We were in the car for almost an hour, and we had to ford through water that was approaching a depth of "exactly how high is the clearance on this car, anyway?"
We made it to the pool eventually, and Dylan was so happy it was probably worth the drive. I mean paddle.
***********
On another topic, it's weird, right, when you send back a driveway paving contract, don't hear anything for a month, then get a phone call Wednesday evening that they'll be starting work Friday morning? Stay tuned for exciting tales from Operation: Don't Let the House Fall Apart Completely.
That was incorrect. I see now that we were wrong. The god in charge of Dylan's swimming career caught wind of our intentions and thought to himself, water eh? You think the kid needs water? I'll give you water. And he did.
If you will refer to the part in the second paragraph about "all three northbound lanes of Route 390" you will also know the exact route we took from our house to the hotel. We were in the car for almost an hour, and we had to ford through water that was approaching a depth of "exactly how high is the clearance on this car, anyway?"
We made it to the pool eventually, and Dylan was so happy it was probably worth the drive. I mean paddle.
***********
On another topic, it's weird, right, when you send back a driveway paving contract, don't hear anything for a month, then get a phone call Wednesday evening that they'll be starting work Friday morning? Stay tuned for exciting tales from Operation: Don't Let the House Fall Apart Completely.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Recap, in brief
There were no less than four (4!) lap babies in my immediate vicinity on the Denver-->Detroit flight. If nothing else, they are a handy barometer of when to pop your ears.
The mountains (or "Rockies," if you want to get technical) in CO = really cool. Except for the constant mind boggling dehydration, which makes it difficult to exist. Suddenly the not-the-heat-the-humidity seems downright moisturizing. The swarms of dogs and bike trails are exciting though.
When I'm not around Dylan and Aaron apparently spend their days racing from one fun activity to the next, and visitors descend like locusts. So it's not clear that Dylan really noticed I was gone, or else just accepted the old "up up sky plane blah blah" without question. However, once I got back it DID seem to occur to her that hey, I haven't seen YOU for a while, some clinging is definitely in order. We Skyped a couple times while I was gone, which helped me a lot anyway.
Planes in miniature turn out to be popular around here. Sorry the hand model I keep hiring is a little chunky.
And a little something for Aaron as well
The mountains (or "Rockies," if you want to get technical) in CO = really cool. Except for the constant mind boggling dehydration, which makes it difficult to exist. Suddenly the not-the-heat-the-humidity seems downright moisturizing. The swarms of dogs and bike trails are exciting though.
When I'm not around Dylan and Aaron apparently spend their days racing from one fun activity to the next, and visitors descend like locusts. So it's not clear that Dylan really noticed I was gone, or else just accepted the old "up up sky plane blah blah" without question. However, once I got back it DID seem to occur to her that hey, I haven't seen YOU for a while, some clinging is definitely in order. We Skyped a couple times while I was gone, which helped me a lot anyway.
Planes in miniature turn out to be popular around here. Sorry the hand model I keep hiring is a little chunky.
And a little something for Aaron as well
Monday, July 21, 2008
A few quick links from today
Dillon Art Festival (I know Dillon is spelled incorrectly, but it's still cool)
Mmmm, breakfast.
Breckenridge Farmer's Market
Oh, we're not really at 12,000 feet. That must be the top of the mountain.
Mmmm, breakfast.
Breckenridge Farmer's Market
Oh, we're not really at 12,000 feet. That must be the top of the mountain.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
The trip so far
To start, here is where I am right now. Well, the condo's just to the right of the picture. It's about fifty steps from the conference, so it's really easy to come back and relax during breaks. This is a necessity when you are totally inept at adjusting to your stay at 12,000 feet. The air is SO DRY and the sun is SO STRONG and I am SO DEHYDRATED. Also sort of short of breath, so it's actually more than a convenience to have the conference close to the housing.
The trip out was fine, but it takes about 10-12 hours of travel to get here. Add an hour if the shuttle you book from the airport does not actually run during the summer, despite having a website that allows you to reserve a spot and pay for just such a trip.
I learned that the Detroit airport is surprisingly nice. There's this really long tunnel between terminals that goes under the runway that has a constant light and sound show. It's like airport, airport, airport, DISNEYWORLD, airport.
The guy who runs the program I'm in (nationally, not in Rochester) was on my shuttle, and he helped me determine that I would be presenting my poster at 6pm yesterday. I left Rochester at 8am, add plus or minus 12 hours, subtract two for the imposing Mountain Time Zone, and you will realize that the shuttle dropped me off at...5:45pm. I still showered beforehand, you'll be pleased to know. This is a conference that has people from all sorts of fields, so my poster was fun because it attracted ALL the other epidemiology people around.
There is currently a fireworks display going on (celebrating...being in the mountains?) that from the sound of it is originating in the living room.
I'm off to work on Project Hydrate. What can I say, I like to party.
The trip out was fine, but it takes about 10-12 hours of travel to get here. Add an hour if the shuttle you book from the airport does not actually run during the summer, despite having a website that allows you to reserve a spot and pay for just such a trip.
I learned that the Detroit airport is surprisingly nice. There's this really long tunnel between terminals that goes under the runway that has a constant light and sound show. It's like airport, airport, airport, DISNEYWORLD, airport.
The guy who runs the program I'm in (nationally, not in Rochester) was on my shuttle, and he helped me determine that I would be presenting my poster at 6pm yesterday. I left Rochester at 8am, add plus or minus 12 hours, subtract two for the imposing Mountain Time Zone, and you will realize that the shuttle dropped me off at...5:45pm. I still showered beforehand, you'll be pleased to know. This is a conference that has people from all sorts of fields, so my poster was fun because it attracted ALL the other epidemiology people around.
There is currently a fireworks display going on (celebrating...being in the mountains?) that from the sound of it is originating in the living room.
I'm off to work on Project Hydrate. What can I say, I like to party.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Found in the back pocket of Dylan's pants
Dylan's To-do list for July 18th, 2008
☒ Stay awake, and keep mommy and daddy up, from 10:30 pm to 2:30 am.
☒ Snuggle aforementioned parents until they're just about asleep, and then pounce on their heads like a cat.
☒ Be very sweet when saying good bye to a very tired mommy.
☐ Scream when someone other than mommy or daddy sits in the back seat with me.
☒ Make sure to fall asleep 20 minutes before we get to daddy's work retreat, so that I have a horrible nap (be sure to add on time, because that man is going to get lost).
☒ Charm everyone at the retreat and make them think that I'm easy going baby.
☐ Stay calm when I'm unable to make bubbles.
☒ When I see something I like, i.e. ducks, ask daddy for more.
☒ Actually see more, and if possible have the more be baby versions of what I had just seen, i.e. ducklings.
☒ Impress daddy's co-workers by eating hummus.
☒ Fall asleep in the car within 10 minutes of leaving the retreat (a fall hour and a half before bedtime).
☒ Ask daddy for humus and then look at him like he is an idiot for bringing me hummus.
☒ When taking the dog out, be sure to be running at least 75% of the time.
☒ If I see a stick on the ground pick it up, start repeating "dog", and stick it in Snuffy's mouth (even if he doesn't want it).
☒ Sleep well in my cool, cool room.
___________________________________________________________
Kate's masterpiece:
Ciao
I am off to Colorado until Monday night, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to write until then.
This is the first time I will be away from Dylan for more than a night, and so far (one hour in) it is going...not well. Yesterday afternoon I thought I would do a little preparation by telling her that Mommy is going up up sky plane etc, which as you know is a concept she is deeply familiar with from her father's work.
I thought maybe she would understand at least a little bit, and it would be less confusing when they dropped me off at the airport. Oh no. She understood. She spent the rest of the day clinging to me with even more fervor than usual. Then when she woke up at 9:30pm because it was a hot night (air conditioner: installed this morning) she remained hysterical for Aaron until I came in, then clung to me for four hours.
Whoops, they're calling my flight. Bye for now.
This is the first time I will be away from Dylan for more than a night, and so far (one hour in) it is going...not well. Yesterday afternoon I thought I would do a little preparation by telling her that Mommy is going up up sky plane etc, which as you know is a concept she is deeply familiar with from her father's work.
I thought maybe she would understand at least a little bit, and it would be less confusing when they dropped me off at the airport. Oh no. She understood. She spent the rest of the day clinging to me with even more fervor than usual. Then when she woke up at 9:30pm because it was a hot night (air conditioner: installed this morning) she remained hysterical for Aaron until I came in, then clung to me for four hours.
Whoops, they're calling my flight. Bye for now.
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