Caitlin and Tim's Adventures

Ohio State v. Badger Football

2010-10-20T12:15:00.000-05:00

Tim and I were only able to make it to one Badger football game this whole year, but looking back, we picked the best game to go to (including the Rose Bowl in my opinion!). Ohio State was coming to play on Badger turf. It was a night game, and Ohio State was ranked #1 in the country (we were #18). Leading up to the game day I was remembering the last big night game against Ohio State in 2003, my first year at college. They had been ranked higher than us, and we took them down! So we could only hope for a similar upset!! The energy in Camp Randall that night was incredible, it was so loud you couldn't hear anything, and from the first play of the game the Badgers were in control! Tim and I were in the student section, the best place to be, and it was insane. Tons of fun, and we dominated the game, brining down the #1 team! The students rushed the field, but since Tim's ankle was still in poor shape we just watched from above! Here are some of the pictures from the game. Go Badgers!

At an awesome pregame with Justin and Liz before the game!

Shots of the field and the band!

Tim and I after we won with the final score! WE WON!!

The students swarming the field. It was unbelieveable! Probably the best Badger football game I have ever been to! Go Badgers!!

Camping at Mirror Lake

2010-10-07T11:43:00.000-05:00

It's a good thing that we registered for all sorts of camping gear for our wedding, because we didn't not use ANY of it until Ben and Alex got married (yep, that would be 1.5 years after we got married.... good thing we got all that camping gear RIGHT AWAY). Ha, but the good news is Ben and Alex are outdoorsy people too, and we decided to bust out all our new gear together on a camping trip in October. We decided to go to Mirror Lake, a camp ground not far from Madison. Ben and Alex came down from the Twin Cities, and we spent the coldest October weekend grilling, hanging by the fire, toasting marshmallows, and going for hikes. It was a great weekend, our new gear is AWESOME, and although it was freezing we all had a great time (even Cooper!)

Tim sprained his ankle very badly a few days before our trip, but he came anyway (what a trooper!). He wasn't able to move very well because his ankle was so swollen, so he parked himself by the fire, read Harry Potter, and checked sports scores on his phone (rough life huh)

Pictures from our hike around the lake. It was cold, but the hike warmed us up and it was beautiful!

Trying out the pudgie pie makers, and Alex flinging flaming marshmallow across the way! Thanks for a great camping trip guys! Here's to more in 2011!

Dan and Sarah's Wedding

2010-09-20T11:04:00.000-05:00

To complete our 2010 wedding season, we travelled once again up to Spicer, MN to Tim's parents for his brother's wedding. Dan and Sarah got married on Spicer Lake in Tim's parents backyard. It was a cold fall day, and we were all bundled up as best as we could, but it was a short and sweet ceremony (in fact it was the same ceremony Tim and I had!), and we were quickly back inside drinking hot chocolate and watching the end of the badger football game. The ceremony was perfectly timed to happen during halftime (though it remains a subject of debate whether that was deliberate or not)! Like all the other weddings we have been to, bad weather threatened to come on that Saturday as it had been raining the entire week leading up to their wedding, but when we woke up in the morning the sun was shining, and it dried up all the remaining rain! Per tradition, the ceremony was at a nearby golf club. It was a wonderful wedding, congrats again Dan and Sarah!

Some of the decorations for the outdoor ceremony on the lawn.

Keeping warm outside as the ceremony starts, and back inside to keep warm! Cooper was very overwhelmed by all of the people at the house, but he was very well behaved!

Watching the end of the badger game... we beat ASU that day, and we had a couple of ASU fans at the wedding. But what's a wedding without some family discontent ;o)

Some wedding pictures of the group

Cupcakes and raising the bride and groom on the chair!

Ben and Alex's Wedding

2010-08-22T10:48:00.000-05:00

On August 21st, two of our college friends, Ben and Alex, got married in Eau Claire, WI. We were looking forward to the wedding because it was a mini college reunion for us, as it was a reason for all of us to get together for Ben and Alex! The wedding was a lot of fun, and we had a blast! Congratulations Ben and Alex! We weren't allowed to take pictures at the church, so here are some pictures from the reception!

The delicious cake and a picture of Tim and myself.

The maid of honor and best man speeches

First dance!

Chicago to visit Athma

2010-08-01T15:10:00.001-05:00

Dan decided to have his bachelor party in Madison, and I decided I didn't want to be around (because if they called me drunk to drive them somewhere, I was going to get pissed). I decided it would be much better use of my time if I went to visit a high school friend of mine in Chicago! So off I went to Chi-town!

I got down their Friday night, so I really only had just over a day in Chicago, and we covered a lot of ground! We had a barbeque with her neighbors Friday night, saw the Univeristy of Chicago campus on Saturday (where she is getting her doctorate), went to China town and enjoyed amazing food and beverages, went to a Mexican festival celebrating the 200th year of Mexican independence, got Indian food, and eventually headed back to watch and movie and catch up on gossip! Sunday we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, got sushi, and then I was off back to Madison. I think we made very good use of our time, and I had a blast in Chicago!

Visiting the campus of the Univeristy of Chicago

We went to Chinatown and a Mexican festival, where Athma and I both got some fun stuff!

Cupcake shops are becoming very popular in Chicago, and so we had to go and out the newest shop (delicious!!). Then we went to the top of the Sears Tower to get a great view of Chicago!

We went to the Museum of Science and Industry and had a great time!

We ended by getting sushi before I headed back to Wisconsin. It was a very fun trip!

Alex's Bachelorette Party

2010-07-26T14:41:00.000-05:00

Ben and Alex's wedding is just around the corner! They decided to have their respective bachelor/bachelorette parties on the same weekend, but we each chose one of the twin cities (we were in Minneapolis, while the boys were in St. Paul). It was a blast! We started with dinner at the Melting Pot, which I had not been to before. It's a fondue restaurant, and it was delicious! We started with bread and two kinds of cheese, and then they brought out meat that we cooked in boiling broth with 5 different sauces to choose from. There was shrimp, chicken, and beef, and I can only remember the gorgonzola sauce; my favorite! We did a small gift exchange, which included giving Alex underwear and she had to guess who each pair was from, and other small gifts. I got Alex Porn for Women, and if you've never read it, you should! Even Tim enjoyed it when I showed it to him ;o)

The crew at the Melting Pot!

Alex decked out with her bling-bling engagement ring, veil, and martini glass

Cheese fondue. There was cheddar with beer (yum!) and swiss.

The meat that we got to cook. We ate all of it!

Our meat cooking away. It was hard to wait, it smelled so good!

Katie and I were designated dessert sharers. It was an amazing end to the fondue experience!

After dinner, we went for drinks on the rooftop of a bar called Solera, and then we spent most of our night dancing at Bootleggers, and then a little more fun (or too much for some) at the W (part of a hotel I believe). It was a blast! I was an old lady and went home a bit early, but considering I had a 4.5 hour drive home the next day by myself, I wasn't too upset to not be hungover the next day. It was a fun mini-road trip!

We passed a pedal cart! It looked like fun!

Alex getting her groove on ;o)

Looking forward to the wedding in August!

Spicer Vacation

2010-07-12T14:28:00.004-05:00

I decided to take off Friday and head up with Tim to go visit his parents in Spicer. We had not been up there since New Years, and decided it was a good time to make a visit. We spent the weekend as usual, sleeping in, lying by the lake, jetskiing, waterskiing, and swimming. We went minigolfing, ate dinner at Melvin's and Jennifer cooked us a number of delicious meals! It was very relaxing, and a nice break from the past couple of stressful months of graduate school.

Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few from the lake! I also have one HILARIOUS story. I was trying to learn to waterski for roughly the first time, and without a doubt I sucked at it. So I kept falling and having to start over. We had decided to take Cooper with us on the boat, and he was doing just fine sitting in Tim's lap (who refused to try waterskiing... slacker). All of a sudden he realized I was in the water, and without notice he FLEW off the boat and swam to me! This dog has NEVER even jumped off of the dock into our arms, but in the middle of the lake he jumped off of the boat to come and save me! It was so cute, and I think a touch traumatizing for him! But he didn't seem to scarred by the experience, and he's enjoying being in the water more and more!

Scott and Becky going for a ride on the jetski

Cooper was one hot dog, but we kept putting him in the water to cool off. When he wasn't in the water, he had to be touching me at all times. I was covered in dog hair. Kind of gross!

Tim on the jetski (but no waterski.... loser!)

Me and my baby. He was so tired from all the excitement and hardly ate any food and would not sleep unless it was at night. Cooper had a blast though!

Lab Decision

2010-07-06T14:23:00.000-05:00

After many delays and obstacles and challanges, my graduate school career finally started to come together at the end of June with a (hopefully) final lab decision! I joined the lab of Dr. Robert Nickells, in the Department of Opthalmology and Visual Sciences. He goes glaucoma research, and while I did not think I would enjoy working with the eye, his research is really neat and I'm excited to be a part of it! He is already working to help me cater a project to include immunology (which is what I really want to do!). I'm very happy hear, and I think this is going to be a great fit for my graduate research. The other members of the lab are wonderful, and they all have a great relationship with the PI. Now it's time to start researching! More to come as my project develops :o)

Way Behind

2010-07-04T13:21:00.001-05:00

Yes, yes, it's been too long since I last updated. We have been quite busy, and I will try to recap everything that we have been up to in the past few months. Check out the posts below for updated events!

Sarah and Matt's Wedding

2010-06-28T14:00:00.000-05:00

On June 26th, also Dan's birthday (Happy 29th birthday Dan!), Tim and I attended our first wedding of the summer (1 out of 3). Tim's parents, brother and fiancee drove down in Madison on Friday, and we all drove down to Wheaton, Illinois the next day for Sarah and Matt's wedding. It was a wonderful wedding, and reminded me a lot of mine and Tim's wedding. They had a simple ceremony is a beautiful church, and a reception at a golf club nearby. Sarah and Matt looked like they were having a lot of fun on their big day, which is always a good sign when the bride and groom are enjoying their wedding ;o) The weather also could not have been better! Congratulations Sarah and Matt!

On our way down we passed a Dunkin Donuts, which we DO NOT have in Madison and it kills me! So me made a mandatory stop. The World Cup was going on and the US team was playing, so off course Tim was on his stupid blackberry as long as possible to keep track of the score!

The church was beautiful, but unfortunately I didn't have a good view to get more pictures!

Instead of assigning table numbers, they did "themes". Each table had a theme that related to a part of their lives together; it was very sweet, but made finding your table a bit tricky!

As you can tell from the quality of these pictures, my little camera didn't do the best job, but I did manage to catch a great picture of Sarah fearing the cake-in-the-face move! She managed to avoid getting smeared with cake, though just barely!

Cooper's Haircut

2010-06-24T14:48:00.000-05:00

Alas our fuzzy puppy could not handle the heat anymore, so we got him a haircut! We always shave him down, instead of doing the typical cocker spaniel cut, so he always looks like a little rat when we get him home. We laugh at him for about 2 weeks, and then he starts to look super cute again. Luck for him, he needs to look cute for Dan and Sarah's wedding in September, so he will be getting another haircut in August, so he'll be nice and cool!

Cooper's new do, and the lazy dog days of summer :o)

One Year Anniversary!

2010-06-14T14:53:00.003-05:00

It is hard to believe, but Tim and I have been married for an entire year! Unfortunately our work schedules did not permit an extravagant celebration, so we made do with what we could here in Madison. Our anniversary was on a Sunday, so we were able to play mini golf on Saturday before the bad weather rolled in, and unfortunately the rain kept us indoors all of Sunday. Tim did get me an Edible Arrangement bouquet (chocolate covered strawberries!!!), and we went out for a nice steak dinner at Johnny Delmonicos. The baker who made our cake includes a free "replacement cake" when you order through him, so Tim ordered us a carrot cake and cream cheese frosting "replacement" to celebrate our anniversary. We did have some left over from the original one-year frozen cake to compare. In my opinion the one-year old cake wasn't bad, but in the words of our baker, "I have hockey pucks that taste better than one-year old cake!" It was above hockey puck status, but not above "replacement cake" status! It was a good anniversary, and hopefully next year we can play a big trip to celebrate!

Tim brought us all breakfast from Eistein Bros., including a doggie bagel for Cooper! He could not have been happier once he figured out how to eat it!

After breakfast, the boys took a mandatory nap. After watcing one of the world cup games with our neighor, it was off to Johnny Delmonico's!

We started with the crab cakes for an appetizer.

Stuffed chicken, corn au gratin, and yes, this steak is just as amazing as it looks!

Of course we both had to order dessert! Cheesecake and bread pudding.

Back home again, we ate some chocolate covered strawberries and one-year-old cake (our replacement cake was not yet available).

One happy family (Cooper is obsessed with trying to eat the one-year-old cake)!

Happy One Year Anniversary!

Other Memorial Day Adventures

2010-06-01T14:36:00.000-05:00

In addition to the SYAP reunion concert, I had a wonderful 4 day weekend with family and friends. Tim and I were home from Friday through Monday evening, so we had 4 solid days to relax in Stamford. Unfortunately bad weather delayed us in both directions (how is there always bad weather in the city we are travelling to, but not the one we are currently in?!?!). However we made it safe and sound to and from Stamford.

The first day home my parents took us to Grand Prix New York. My dad, the amateur car racer, said that this was the closest thing to racing a car he had done in a while, so I KNEW it was going to be fun. We got to do two 10-minute races on the bottom track (see link above). These carts can go up to 40 mph, and you are required to wear a full racing suit, and a helmet. These tracks are not the typical oval track at most go carts areas either, there are hair-pin turns and straightaways and strategy is actually involved! It was so much fun! I was able to prove that I am in fact a better driver than Tim, and my dad was able to prove that years of amateur racing experience trumps every skill we thought we had. It was a blast!

I also got to spend some time with my friends. I had a party at my parents house on Saturday night, and we ate fabulous home-made food (because it wouldn't be a party if my parents didn't hand make everything), and I got caught up with everyone on life and had a great time hanging out with everyone! I miss my friends from home so much, and I wish they were closer, so thanks to everyone who was able to make it :o) I also got to meet some people for breakfast at IHOP (always delicious!) before we left on Monday. Hopefully it won't be another year and a half before I can come home again!

The weather was beautiful, and we could not have had a better trip home! The reunion was great, and it was a good balance of friends and family. Hopefully I'll get to come home again soon! Thanks everyone for making our trip so fun!

YAP 50th Gala Reunion

2010-05-31T14:27:00.000-05:00

When I was in high school, I was a member of the Stamford Young Artists Philharmonic, a youth orchestra founded by Salvatore Princiotti. Mr. Princiotti, or Maestro, or Mr. P, has been running SYAP for 50 years, and 50 generations of students have been under the direction of only one conductor for the entire duration of our time with this group. And so hopefully you can imagine that celebrating the 50th year of this organization is one extraordinary event. I bought my tickets home for this show months in advance, and could hardly contain my excitement! I had not been home in a year and a half, so not only was I excited to visit friends and family, but I was so excited to attend the reunion concert to honor my conductor, Mr. Princiotti.

Sal is now 75 years old, looks like he's 60, and has the heart and soul of the 25 year old young man that founded SYAP. Over 100 alumni returned to Stamford to perform on stage under his direction, and even more us attended the concert. I was not able to perform with the group, but I was far from disappointed to be able to sit in the audience and hear them perform. The concert was a wonderful tribute to Sal, and it was a wonderful chance to catch up with the other Yappers of my class! I had a wonderful time, I'm looking forward to the next reunion concert :o) Stay strong Mr. Princiotti!

Wisconsin Trivia State Championship

2010-05-22T14:07:00.002-05:00

Several states around the US have trivia competitions. Wisconsin has one of the biggest participating groups for trivia, while some states only have a few representatives from one or two big cities. So in case you think that it's a bunch of dorks sitting around playing trivia, well, you're only half right because apparently Wisconsin has at least 5 major cities FULL of these dorks (us included!). Tim and I started playing a couple of years ago with some of our college friends, but that group disbanded when people started moving away from Madison. More recently we started playing again with our neighbors across the hall in our apartment building. It has become such a hit with this group that we go at least once a week, sometimes more than that! It's a great social activity, and I feel I'm learning lots of useless facts.

So how do you play trivia? In Madison, you can play Monday through Thursday night, with several bars to choose from each night. There are 6 rounds with 3 questions per round (18 total questions), as well as a half-time question and a final question worth more points. You get to wager points on each question, so it is a game of strategy as well as a game of who knows more useless shit! If your team is ranked in top 20 in your area at the end of the season (usually a couple of months), then you automatically get to participate in the State Championship (with a $1000 prize!). If you are in the 20-40 top teams, you get to participate in the Wild Card game for a chance to go to the state.

Enter Team Suicidal Puppies (my neighbors idea). We qualified for the Wild Card round, and halfway through the tournament we had essentially ZERO points. We realized we had no chance of making it to state, but we were going to keep trying anyway. Going into the final question, we were in dead last place (I kid you not). The final question is worth up to 15 points, and if you get it right you get 15 points, and if you get it wrong, you lose 15 points. We wagered everything, and on that single question went from DEAD LAST to FOURTH PLACE and qualified for the State tournament!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

Unfortunately we got destroyed at the State tournament, but still managed to finish middle of the pack. However it was the comeback of the century, and we have been trying to have a repeat performance ever since with no such luck. Alas, we still enjoy trivia, and love to play. Our team is currently ranked 17th! Check out our league standings ;o)

The Lion King

2010-05-08T13:39:00.000-05:00

For Christmas my parents got us tickets to see the Lion King when it came to Madison. I have been trying to get Tim to see more shows and plays with me, and luckily we both have the same taste for theatre. We both love musicals if they are funny, and so the Lion King fell right into that category. I have never outgrown the cartoon phase of my life, and my favorite movie is currently Finding Nemo (I kid you not, I never get tired of that movie!). So in May we got to go see this amazing show right here in Madison. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures during the show (my camera is not good enough, and I wanted to watch it!), but here are some of the images that I pulled off of the internet.

The costumes were just as amazing as everyone claimed, but they were not what I was expecting. It's not exactly people dressed up as animals. It's actors and actresses on stilts, swaying headpieces that mimic African wildlife, masks that move up and down depending on the position of the wearer, elaborate colors and scenery! It was absolutely incredibly, and Tim said it was his favorite show by far of all the ones we've seen! If you get a chance, we would both highly recommend seeing this show!

Thanks Mom and Dad!

These are the costumes from the lion actors and actresses.

The Timon and Pumba costumes. They were hilarious!

Rafiki was amazing. The show opened with an entire monologue in a native African language, and the quirkiness of the Rafiki from the cartoon was amazing!

Crazylegs Classic

2010-04-24T13:24:00.001-05:00

For the first time Tim, myself, and his parents decided to run the Crazylegs Classic, a 5 mile race throughout the Wisconsin campus. It is incredibly well known because of the number of people that participate each year. This year, the total number of participants was around 20,000!! There are so many people that run this race every year that they had to change the race structure, and allow people to start in waves rather than one big mass. The race is fun, you start down State Street, run up an infamously steep hill called Observatory Drive, run along through the campus, and then come back around and finish in the football stadium Camp Randall! It was so fun!

It was a cool, slightly rainy day, but the conditions ended up being PERFECT for a 5 mile run. the rain help off until the end of the race, but the little bit of rain that fell before the race kept the dust down and the temperature in the 60s, so it wasn't too hot or too cold. Since Tim and I had prepared for this race by NOT running at all (well, I'd been playing soccer, but Tim prepared by sitting on the couch), good weather could not have helped us out more.

All four of us started together, but Tim and I got a little ahead of John and Jennifer. We ended up finishing about 2 minutes ahead of them, with Tim and myself running the race in 56:00, and John and Jennifer at 58:42. With the rain starting to come down, we left very quicly, and didnt' even have time for a celebratory beer (customary at the end of this race)! But we had a nice warm lunch at Old Chicago, and calzones made us all warmer!

It was a great race, and I'm already planning on doing it again next year!

Brewers Game

2010-04-20T17:52:00.004-05:00

Tim can't sit still waiting for opening day of baseball, especially the Brewers! In the first week of baseball, he attended not 1, but 3 games! Tim was fortunate enough to have connections to the opening day game (which are coveted tickets and difficult to get), as well as the next day and a game the following Sunday. I was actually invited to the Sunday game, so I got to document the day of grilling, drinking, and games on a beautiful spring day! Here are some pictures from the day:

We had yummy snacks and of course, Miller Lite

Bernie (the mascot) and his slide, and an action shot!

Group photo, and although this doesn't show it, the Brewers won (personally I find baseball really boring, and couldn't really remember if they had won until Tim reminded me)!

donating my hair!

2010-04-20T15:18:00.000-05:00

For the third time, I have donated my hair to an organization that uses hair to make wigs for cancer patients. I only knew of one organization called Locks of Love, but when I went to Cost Cutters this time, they told me they donate to Wigs for Kids now, an organization that makes wigs specifically for children. I do not care where my hair goes, as long as it's not the trash, so I donated 10.5" to Wigs for Kids. I have donated 2 other times, both to Locks of Love, and I would encourage anyone to let their hair grow out and donate at least 10" to one of these organizations. It takes no effort for me to let my hair grow out, and I like to think that in some small way I'm helping someone else have a better day during a difficult time in their life :o) My haircut ended up being VERY short, shorter than I have ever cut it before, but it is already growing back in quickly! Here are some pictures from the day I cut it!

My camera is not the best, but here is a view of the front.

Another view of the front.

A view from the back.

I like my new haircut, but I can't wait until it grows in a bit so I can wear a normal ponytail again!

Marking Territory

2010-04-14T07:14:00.002-05:00

Since I haven't posted in a while, here's an update on the life of Cooper. He has recently "learned" to mark territory. Yes, he learned how to do, it was not instinctive. He is a year and a half old now, and has never done this until this spring, when he watched other dogs do it at Doggie Playgroup (we take him to a dog playgroup saturday mornings at one of the local kennels where he gets to run around with 20 other dogs for an hour - LOVES it).

So why is this exciting, or hilarious? Because he doesn't quite understand how to mark territory. Instead of peeing on obvious things like signs and hydrants, he pees on non-stationary items, like clumps of dirt and twigs and leaves. He also frequently misses when he's aiming for a specific mark; he doesn't realize yet that he needs power. Cooper hasn't marked anything IN the house yet (and the day he does I'm sending him back), but he did try to mark our screen door (I was MAD). He also has peeing contests with the neighbors dog, Lily, who is a girl. I think during these times Cooper is actually pefecting his technique and learning from Lily.

I was told that when a dog was neutered early enough, they actually don't feel the urge to mark territory since their hormone levels have changed. Apparently, no one told me that this can also be a LEARNED behavior! Who knew? I'm a bit concerned when we do buy a house how this new habit will carry over, or when we get another dog how Cooper will handle accidents from the puppy! Our little trouble maker... goes to show that he's a pretty smart pup!

Belated Blog Birthdays

2010-04-05T20:52:00.004-05:00

I am quite behind on the blog again, but while I remember I wanted to send an official blogger Happy Birthday to Tim and my mom! Tim is now 26, and my mom will never be a day over 50 ;o) For Tim's birthday we went to one of our favorite places in Madison, the Essen Haus! We had great German food, and drank boots of beer all night long (and by all night long, I mean we came home at midnight because we were all tired). Aside from being old and married and lame, Tim had a great time and that's all that mattered!

Happy Birthday Tim and Mom!

News in 2010

2010-02-21T19:48:00.010-06:00

It has been quite some time since I updated our blog (almost 2 months), so here are the highlights so far from 2010!

Thesis Lab Decision: To make a very long story short, I ended up leaving the lab that I had joined, and am now looking for a new lab yet again. With funding being very tight at the university level, the search is slow and frustrating, but I have a lot of people supporting me so hopefully I will find something soon.

New Years: Backing up a bit, Tim and I were able to take a few days to go up to Spicer, MN and visit his parents over New Years. It was freezing while we were up there (-30F when we woke up every day), but we had a wonderful time being spoiled by his parents, especially Cooper, who had several doggie playdates! We were able to exchange belated Christmas gifts, and spent New Years Eve with John and Jennifer's neighbors and many of their close friends from the area. It was a blast, with lots of good food, wine and champaigne! We would have liked to stay longer, but I had to start a new rotation (in the lab I just joined!) on January 4th. It was wonderful to get away for a few days though! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures!

Freezing Fog: I'm going to prove just how big of a nerd I am for posting about this, but I thought it was really cool. We had a freezing fog early in January, which mean that every morning we woke up to ice crystals in the trees and bushes, but no snow on the ground (best snow storm ever, all the beauty and no mess!). I had never seen anything like that happen before, because usually the winter is so dry that moisture can't accumulate and then form crystals this way. I know, I know, but I thought it was cool!

These tiny crystals formed on every branch, every leaf, every berry. It honestly looked like it had snowed, but there was nothing on the ground!

Camp Randall Hockey Classic: On February 6th, the UW men's and women's hockey teams played in the Camp Randall Hockey Classic. They converted the football field into an ice rink, and all us dedicated (read: crazy) fans wore all of our clothes and huddled together in the frigid February weather to watch them play! A group of our college friends came into town for the game, so in additional the hockey game we went out to eat, went bowling, and engaged in general mayhem. Here are a few pictures from the game:

A wide view of the field, and another stunning example of the zoom capability on my camera! You could read the numbers on their jerseys!

Commerical break, and Dan, Sarah, myself, Tim, and Jamie freezing our asses off! It was about 10F and slightly windy! Brrrr!

Valentine's Day: While Valentine's Day is not a big deal for either Tim or myself, it is nice to be able to do something together. Unfortuantely Tim had to work all day, so I made dinner (Thai peanut chicken, yum!) and we had a nice relaxing night once he was done. He also got me an Edible Arrangement (not to be confused with edible underpants), which was AWESOME and delicious! Best bouquet ever! I got Tim a temperpedic pillow like mine (because the one he has sucks) so that he will stop stealing mine, and because they were discounted 50%! Nothing says love like fruit and pillows huh?

My awesome bouquet, and Cooper eyeing it up ;o)

Well that's about all the news here! Tim has been working a lot between both jobs, Cooper has been sleeping his days away, and I'm excited to be busy in my new lab!

Rainy's Reading Room

2010-01-22T15:05:00.005-06:00

This post is dedicated to promoting my mom's brand new blog! It's called Rainy's Reading Room. Her blog is solely focused on book reviews, so if you are looking for a great read, you should check it out! She has already posted reviews for about a dozen books, and plans to update it weekly with additional reviews. Her blog is meant to be a tool to help readers find fantastic books. The books are all rated on a scale of one to five stars with a short summary of the plot and her personal thoughts. Comments and suggestions are highly encouraged!

She's put in a lot of hard work to get it ready, so if you have a chance check it out, and don't hesitate to pass along the website (http://rainysreadingroom.blogspot.com/) to any avid readers you may know! Thanks everyone!

Christmahanakwanzakah

2009-12-26T11:40:00.008-06:00

Happy Christmahanakwanzikah everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed their respective holiday! My family doesn't celebrate Christmas (unless a Chinese food and a movie counts!), and Tim and I don't really care, but it's always nice to have a day designated to spend with family. Unfortunately that's not quite how things worked out for us this year. To make a very long story short, I was unable to go home because of difficulties finding a lab for graduate school. It's disappointing, because it has been over a year since I have been home to Connecticut, but sometimes that's just how it goes. Instead, Tim and I are planning on visiting my parents Memorial Day weekend, during which the Stamford Young Artist's Philharmonic (an ensemble I was a part of during high school) will be celebrating their 50th year under the founding director (more to come in May)! So at least I'll get to go home then! We weren't able to visit Tim's parents either because he did not request off soon enough. We'll see them for New Years though!
In the meantime, Tim and I were stuck in Madison celebrating Christmas with each other and our puppy (bummer!). Since my schedule had been up in the air, Tim had not requested off, so he was scheduled to work the days leading up to Christmas, as well as the days after Christmas (lots of returns). But with lots of snow and freezing rain and regular rain and more snow heading our way, I'm not too disappointed that we stayed put! We watched The Big Bang Theory episodes (great TV show, highly recommend it!), a couple movies, a basketball game (guess who), made soup, opened presents, and had a very relaxing day. Here are some pictures:

To start off the "Christmas spirit", our very kind neighbors, Sarah, Wayne and their daughter Autumn brought us a plate of cookies! I got them some dog toys for their new puppy, Harley, to say thank you!

The highlight of Cooper's day was this GIANT rawhide shaped like a candycane! Rawhides never last very long, but I knew this one would take him awhile (and it was only $3)! He still isn't even sure how to chew on it yet!

He tried carrying it around, but it was hard to maneuver around the furniture, and it almost doesn't fit in his mouth. He didn't even notice his other toys because he was so busy chewing on it all day (and he hasn't even made a dent! Success!).

This is going to be part of my present from Tim (the other part is still a mystery)! It's a magnet that goes on your car; I LOVE IT (sorry, science trumps religion)! This also official confirms that we can NEVER move to the South... ever. For Tim, I finally cracked and got him a Sam's Club membership (I think it made his year). His favorite thing from Sam's Club are cheeseballs (imagine styrofoam balls covered in cheese; see picture). I also got him a new Wii video game!

We also made one of my FAVORITE recipes, cheddar cheese corn chowder! Unfortunately I never seem to make it in small enough quantities, so we have enough to last us through a nuclear winter! Cooper finally tired of working on his bone and cuddled up with me for the remainder of the night (it feels so good to be loved!).

Happy Holidays Everyone!

So, is it winter yet?

2009-12-10T17:36:00.005-06:00

Um, yes. How do I know? Well, it got a little cold, and it started snowing. And then it didn't stop snowing. In fact, it snowed 18 inches overnight!

We woke up to snow EVERYWHERE! It was almost up to my knee, and that is my poor car buried (along with many others)!

Madison declared a national snow emergency and the entire city shut down. The University even cancelled school the night before because it was so bad already (and being a student again, I got to enjoy a snow day for the first time since high school)!!! To celebrate this momentous occasion (this may have been the first snow day in 20 years at UW), some of the students decided to make a snowball, while others decided that the fabulous compactability of the snow would be great for breaking the windows of passing cars (eek, glad I was not downtown!). As if the sky opening up and dumping all the fury of winter on us in one night wasn't enough! Luckily we do not live anywhere near downtown, but that also meant our streets were not plowed first. The road through our complex was plowed, but that was as far as we could get!

More pictures of craziness.

Cooper suddenly rediscovered that he is a hunting dog (who knew?) and was trying to track the small animals that had burrowed through the snow (no, he has never done this when it's warm out). This resulted in one wet dog but luckily no dead animals (phew)!

Luckily all of my classes were cancelled (did I mention it was a snow day?!), and Tim did not have to work, so we were able to sit at home, make a fire, and actually enjoy seeing each other for an entire day! Unfortunately the temperature dropped today to zero degrees, so in addition to having enough snow to build a village, it all turned to ice (and caused the buses to run 20 minutes behind schedule today). Luckily I have Yak Traks to get me through it!

GREEN BAY PACKERS GAME

2009-12-09T10:56:00.006-06:00

Due to a magnificent stroke of luck, Tim knows a guy who knows a guy who was able to get us tickets to a Monday night Packers football game! I was stoked! In fact, Tim bought me a Packers jersey for my birthday to prepare (Donald Driver, in case you were wondering)!

I have never been to a Packers game, and really I can't image many stadiums are like Lambeau. It is completely open, no roof, and the stadium is packed regardless of the weather. So as the temperature drops throughout the season, you have to know that the only other people at Lambeau are the most dedicated bunch! Tim has put his name in to get season tickets, and last we checked, he is 70,149th in line (no, I'm not exaggerating). Going to a Packers game is a big deal in this state, and I was so excited that we were going! We got tickets with two of Tim's coworkers, so we were able to carpool up, pregame, and scream at the game with good friends!

It was close to 15 degrees that night, but having survived many winters in Wisconsin we were all prepared. I wore 3 pairs of pants, 2 warm shirts my jersey and a winter coat. We also had hand warmers and toe warmers to keep our appendages from falling off. It was cold, but we were packed in so tightly that we were keeping each other warm. And really when you are at Lambeau watching the packers in the Frozen Tundra, you don't even notice that you are cold! I even spent part of the time not wearing my jacket so people could see my jersey (but that did not last for longer than 15 minutes!

I did not know this, but every time the Packers score, instead of playing some fight song, they play "I don't wanna work, I just want to bang on the drum all day!" Best celebration song ever!

My friend Lyndsae from grad school was also at the game! She traversed across the entire stadium just so we could get this one picture together!

And the best part was that the Packers won! GO PACK GO!

The drive up took us about 3 hours, and the drive home took us about 4 (traffic as you can imagine was terrible!). We did not get home until 4:30am, and Tim had to work at 8:30am! Somehow he made it, but either way, it was totally worth it ;o)

Thanksgiving

2009-11-28T11:26:00.003-06:00

For the first time in my entire life, I missed Thanksgiving this year :o( Being Jewish, we don't celebrate Christmas, so this is the only family holiday that I have, so I was pretty sad to not be going home. Unfortunately plane tickets were insanely expensive, and it just wasn't worth the money for me to go home for a few days since Tim could not leave Madison (he had to work Black Friday). Instead Tim and I are going to try and go home around New Years together. Although I was not able to be with my family, we were lucky that Tim's family could come down to spend the day with us. Jennifer and I split the cooking, so that I could still make my parents classic recipes (I would have cried if I could not have anything from home!). Although it was not the same as being with my family, it was a WONDERFUL day with Tim's family! All of the food was delicious, we ate until we couldn't move, and then watched football (Go Packers!). Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, because the whole point is to eat until you pass out!

The Court Family tradition on Thanksgiving is to do a mock fantasy football draft with Tim, Dan, John, and their college buddy Ben. They pick players from the Thursday games, and keep track of who does the best! John (and I) came in second, but Dan ended up winning!

Jennifer with the set table, and the group of us before chowing down!

I sure ate my fair share of food!

All the prepared food, and the Jennie-O turkey in a bag!

Cooper got a Thanksgiving bone, which meant that he did not beg during dinner! He dropped a piece in the couch and tried to retrieve it, burying his whole face between the cushions!

My 25th Birthday!

2009-11-21T10:33:00.000-06:00

For the first time in a while, my birthday was NOT in the middle of the week and it was NOT 2 days before Thanksgiving. It was on a Friday, so I could go out, and everyone had not yet left to go home for the holiday so I had friends to spend it with! And I turned a quarter of a century old! Yay! I decided to celebrate Essen Haus style, with good beer and good company! Lots of people came throughout the night, Lyndsae made me cake and brought me party hats, and I got to dance with some random guy who actually knew how to dance (I cannot however, so it did not help his image)! I had a blast! Unfortunately they were out of boots, so we had to order a 5 liter stein! Can't say no to more beer!

The group of us at our gigantic table, and Lyndsae!

Enrique showing us how to drink like a true gay man, and fun with party hats!

My wonderful husband, who doned a party hat just for this picture (party pooper)!

Justin and Liz came out, and they recommended the great beer that we got!!

Some of my old coworkers came out, and Lyndsae showed cake in my face! I was not prepared!

Thanks for a wonderful night everyone!

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

2009-11-10T21:23:00.010-06:00

As an early birthday present, Tim's parents got me tickets to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Madison yesterday (thank you so much!). For those who don't know, this is a talented group of musicians and singers that play the rock band verison (not the video game, but real rock music) of classical songs. Think Beethoven with an electric guitar and an electric violin... it's awesome! Overall the show was good, but Tim and I were a bit disapointed by the first half. The show in Madison was their Christmas show, which meant that instead of the rock songs we were expecting, it was set up like a Church Christmas show... a narrator told a happy story with a merry ending, ballads, a little jazz. Overall much calmer and quieter music than we were expecting. They are an incredibly talented group of musicans and singers, so it was still amazing, just not quite what we had anticipated.

The show lasted about 2 hours (or so we thought), and then they decided to play us a few songs from their new album Nightcastle. And by a few songs, they played for an additional hour (make that 3 hours total)!! But FINALLY they started playing the rock songs we had anticipated! Not to mention their highly choreographed light show with lazers, fire, and a stage that lifted into the air! They had dueling guitars, dueling violins, flashing video screens, and did I mention fire?! It was a really awesome show! Here are a few pictures from the night, and a video so you can see the mayhem that ensued! I took the best pictures I could considering I'm no professional and I wasn't allowed to use a flash. Bare with me!

The Narrator who told the Christmas Story: something about two men, a snow storm, and a good (alcoholic) beverage. Because what Christmas story doesn't begin at a bar?!

One of the many effects from the moving lights and video screens.

Yay electric violins! And another awesome example of their light show.

They filled the Kohl Center with smoke so that they could shoot the lazers across the entire venue. It was a pretty cool effect, though I hope my retinas didn't suffer too much! You can't see much else in this picture.

Parts of the stage being lifted into the air!

Guitar solo, vocal backup, drums in the back, and more lazers!

Dueling guitars. They competed for who had the better half of the audience by performing and then getting us to cheer. It was pretty funny!

Suddenly they moved from the main stage to a hidden stage right in front of us that air lifted off the ground (possibly with the help of the ropes attached to the ceiling!).

This is one hell of a way to end a show! Lights, lazers, fire, electric instruments, and flying performers. Seriously, what more could you want?!

Well, so much for the video, I can't figure out how to upload it. One day I'll figure out all the little tricks to Blogger, but for now, trust me it was a cool show!

Cooper Pictures

2009-11-05T19:42:00.005-06:00

I haven't posted some of the funny pictures of Cooper in a while, so here is a bit of what our crazy furry child has been up to!

Me messing with Cooper, and Coop smelling Tim's shoes (bleh!)

Tired puppies are good puppies!

Coop all stretched out and chewing on his lizard!

Making Pizza!

2009-11-05T18:55:00.004-06:00

Since I moved away from home, one of the most traumatic things was realizing no one was cooking for me anymore! Don't get me wrong, I miss my parents very much, but if you grew up with their home cooking, you'd miss that A LOT too! Ever since I moved out of the dorms I've been doing my best to reproduce my parents cooking. For the most part it wasn't too hard, considering that I LOVE to cook and I had great role models willing to share their secret recipes. But of all the things I could make to remind me of home, one thing I couldn't make was my dad's pizza. His pizza was required (yes, it was assumed it would be made) whenever my high school friends came over and was a stable of my childhood (correction: life). I never ate a frozen pizza or ordered a pizza a day in my life until I left home (and frozen pizza just sucks).

So what's been holding me back? Well, pizza dough is much easier to make with a bread machine (expensive), and pizza requires other accessories like a pizza stone and a pizza peel. Well recently Tim and I had a little thing called a wedding, and all the things that we needed to make our own pizza were suddently available! So tonight we made our first pizza from scratch (with special thanks to the bread machine)!

Me with the before pizza, in case something happened to it while it cooked we would at least would have one picture of our attempt!

Tim with the finished product!

We decided that for a first try it was pretty good, but not quite at the grand master level. It was yummy though!

I also realize that since I have dedicated an entire blog to one of my dad's specialties, a future blog will need to be dedicated to my one of my mom's specialties! More to come!

Halloween!

2009-11-02T18:13:00.000-06:00

Halloween started for us when Tim's parents sent us Halloween candy! They also sent Cooper a Halloween bone, and he was SOOO HAPPY! He chewed that bone until it disappeared!

For those who don't know, Halloween is kind of a big deal here in Madison. There is a street downtown called State Street, with bars and restaurants and shops, and only buses, taxis, police and cyclists are allowed onto the road. It's a neat place, about a mile long, and it leads right up to the Capitol. It's a popular place not just for students but for residents of the city as well. And on Halloween it is where 40,000 people gather in costume! When I was in college, Halloween was a bit out of control, with store windows being broken, riots breaking out, etc. No one was ever hurt, but they decided to make "Freakfest" a closed event and started charging entrance to the street after 7pm. To make it more interesting, they started having bands play and putting food vendors on the streets.

It sounds cool, but unfortunately I'm a bit halloweened out having been here for so many years, and dealing with drunks on State Street has lost its appeal (yes, I'm old and married and old). Instead this year I went to a few parties with the graduate students in my program. Tim unfortunately was given the schedule from hell, and had to work Friday 4-10, Saturday 8-2, 3-6, and cover a sporting event that night, and Sunday 9-7. Needless to say he was not able to come out on Halloween. I went to 2 parties that weekend, and here are a few pictures from them (oh year, I dressed up as a genie, gypsy, something):

The first year CMP students (missing Utibe!), and myself and Danielle

Lyndsae and Toni, devil and rockstar

Danielle and Lyndase and Bob Marley, and Toni and the boy

It was a fun weekend, although I did call it quits early so I could come home and be old with Tim and watch TV (slacker didn't want to come out). That's ok, I forgive him, I would not have wanted to either! It was a fun weekend though!

Birthdays and Visitors

2009-10-26T22:15:00.003-05:00

The month of October was a big birthday month for us. Although these are all quite belated, I would like to wish a happy birthday to Tim's dad John (October 5), my dad and Tim's mom Jennifer (October 7), and a happy anniversary to my parents (October 9). I would also like to wish a happy birthday to all of the September and October birthdays of our friends (there are far too many to name, and I don't want to deal with the awkward situation of leaving one out)!

In addition to all these birthdays, Tim and I have had visitors the past 3 weekends in a row! Three weeks ago, Tim's parents came down to visit us. It's always good to see them, especially since they spoil us by taking us out to eat and grocery shopping. We had a wonderful weekend with them. The following weekend our college friends Ben and Alex came down to attend the Iowa Wisconsin football game with Ben's dad (who flew in all the way from Oregon to see the game). They had a great time showing his dad and his buddy around Madison, and we got to see Ben and Alex! Last weekend we had a big group down to Madison just for hell of it. There was lots of drinking, lots of football watching, and lots of $1 bets placed on completely absurd things. Oh yeah, and if I was as good at real bowling as I am at Wii bowling, I'd be a rockstar (alas, that is not how the world works; maybe they can make a Wii Scientist to boost my ego too).

And coming up this weekend is Halloween, which is a city wide drunken celebration! I'm sure some entertaining pictures are to come!

Congratulations Dan and Sarah!

2009-10-03T16:23:00.005-05:00

Tim's brother Dan recently proposed to his girlfriend Sarah! We are so excited for them! They are getting married next September, and have already started to make plans. Yay, and congratulations!

Wofford Football Game

2009-09-20T15:56:00.000-05:00

Who has ever heard of Wofford College? We sure hadn't! But Dan's boss actually claimed to have gone to this school, and low and behold our football team was playing his team! So Dan's boss was coming down to Madison to see a football game, and Dan decided to come to the football game, and he brought with him Sarah, Katie, Beth, Brad, Ben, and Alex! Tim and I had not yet been to a football game since the season started, but Tim had the entire weekend off and we planned on spending that drinking with good company and watching our Badgers! Luckily we won, but not by much. It was a great weekend, and it was great to see so many of our college friends. Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

The girls posing with a cutout of Bucky Badger.

We played a lot of baseball and beanbags.

Katie kept score because she broke her wrist and throwing was tough with a cast on (but still managed to help us win in beanbags!).

One of my friends from gradschool game with us too. She asked me to share half a brat with her, and I took my half... in one bite (my hands were full maybe?). Didn't quite think that one through!

Sarah with her stellar beer... mmmm Miller Lite!

Without a mouth full of brat, but confused?

Part of our group at the game!

Tim and myself!

Hilarious Letter!

2009-09-07T18:50:00.004-05:00

This letter has been circulating through emails, read on radio shows, and passed around among friends, but for those who have not yet seen it, please enjoy yourself!

This is an actual letter from an Austin woman sent to American company Proctor and Gamble regarding their feminine products. It's PC Magazine's 2007 editors' choice for best webmail-award-winning letter.

Dear Mr.. Thatcher,

I have been a loyal user of your 'Always' maxi pads for over 20 years and I appreciate many of their features. Why, without the LeakGuard Core or Dri-Weave absorbency, I'd probably never go horseback riding or salsa dancing, and I'd certainly steer clear of running up and down the beach in tight, white shorts. But my favorite feature has to be your revolutionary Flexi-Wings. Kudos on being the only company smart enough to realize how crucial it is that maxi pads be aerodynamic. I can't tell you how safe and secure I feel each month knowing there's a little F-16 in my pants.

Have you ever had a menstrual period, Mr. Thatcher? I'm guessing you haven't. Well, my time of the month is starting right now. As I type, I can already feel hormonal forces violently surging through my body. Just a few minutes from now, my body will adjust and I'll be transformed into what my husband likes to call 'an inbred hillbilly with knife skills.' Isn't the human body amazing?

As Brand Manager in the Feminine-Hygiene Division, you've no doubt seen quite a bit of research on what exactly happens during your customer's monthly visits from 'Aunt Flo'. Therefore, you must know about the bloating, puffiness, and cramping we endure, and about our intense mood swings, crying jags, and out-of-control behavior. You surely realize it's a tough time for most women. The point is, sir, you of all people must realize that America is just crawling with homicidal maniacs in Capri pants... Which brings me to the reason for my letter. Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful I wanted to reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I opened an Always maxi-pad, and there, printed on the adhesive backing, were these words: 'Have a Happy Period.' Are you kidding me? What I mean is, does any part of your tiny middle-manager brain really think happiness - actual smiling, laughing happiness - is possible during a menstrual period? Did anything mentioned above sound the least bit pleasurable? Well, did it, James? FYI, unless you're some kind of sick freak, there will never be anything 'happy' about a day in which you have to jack yourself up on Motrin and Kahlua and lock yourself in your house just so you don't march down to the local Walgreen's armed with a hunting rifle and a sketchy plan to end your life in a blaze of glory.

For the love of God, pull your head out, man! If you have to slap a moronic message on a maxi pad, wouldn't it make more sense to say something that's actually pertinent, like 'Put down the Hammer' or 'Vehicular Manslaughter is Wrong'.

Sir, please inform your Accounting Department that, effective immediately, there will be an $8 drop in monthly profits, for I have chosen to take my maxi-pad business elsewhere. And though I will certainly miss your Flex-Wings, I will not for one minute miss your brand of condescending crap.

And that's a promise I will keep.

Always......

Best,

Wendi Aarons
Austin , TX

Long time, no posts!

2009-09-06T11:04:00.003-05:00

Yeah, it's been along time since I posted. Call it 8 months. Sorry. Things got a bit crazy. The quick update, but I will go into more detail in subsequent posts, is I got accepted into grad school, Tim and I got married, we went on our honeymoon, Tim got promoted at Dick's Sporting Goods, high school sports have started again and he's writing more, I have started graduate school, and overall things are going great!

Ok, I'm going to try and back up 8 months and get you caught up on some of the highlights. Read below for all of the posts that I've caught up on so far, going all the way back to January of this year! Hopefully I won't fall this far behind again!

First Week of Graduate School

2009-09-06T10:43:00.001-05:00

Classes started on Wednesday and so far my first week was fairly uneventful. I am taking a bunch of classes, because at the recommendation of several experienced graduate students, this will be the easiest semester so I might as well take a lot now. So I am taking:
- Introduction to Major Human Diseases
- Virology
- Ethics (required)
- Professional Development (required)
- Student Seminar
- Pathology Seminar
I'm really excited about my new classes, the courses sound really neat and it really is what I'm excited to do and learn about!

So the way that graduate school works at Wisconsin is that the first semester I choose 3 labs to rotate in for one month each. These are 3 labs that I really like and am really interested in, and from these 3 I will pick one to spend my graduate school years doing research in. I will have enough classes for roughly the first 2 years, and after that I will present my thesis to a committee that I select and if I pass, I will be a dissertator. I will then spend another 3-4 years completing my PhD. I have set up my first 2 rotations so far, and I will be doing work in an Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) lab, and multiple sclerosis (MS) lab, and possibly a tuberculosis lab (although I have not confirmed my 3rd rotation). I'm very excited to start! The first rotation begins on Tuesday, so I will be working there full time while taking classes. Stay tuned for more updates!

Last Day, Triathlon, New Table, Noah's Ark, Cooper gets coned!

2009-09-04T09:55:00.001-05:00

My last day of work was August 7, and I took almost 4 weeks off before starting graduate school on September 2. I was really sad to leave my job at the AIDS Vaccine Lab :o( I really enjoyed working there, I had made some great friendships, and I hope that my new lab is as fun as this one. I'm going to miss you guys! Luckily I'm still going to be in Madison, so I can always meet up with them sometime!

After my last day, the first thing Tim and I did was take a long 4-day weekend up at his parents place in Spicer, MN, 2 hours west of the Twin Cities. It had been quite some time since we had visiting their house on the lake, but the main reason we made the 7-hour drive was to compete in the Green Lake Triathlon with Tim's Dad John, Tim's mom Jennifer, Tim's brother Dan, Dan's girlfriend Sarah, myself, two of our friends from college Ben and Alex, and several of John's friends from Spicer. Two of our other friends came to cheer us on, thanks Brad and Katie! The triathlon was fun because it was in a small town, so most of the people doing it were doing it for fun, and in our group John and I were the only 2 who had ever done a triathlon before! It was a blast doing the race with so many friends. I was secretly hoping to win out of our group (not the entire race), since I'm a good swimmer and a decent cyclist, but I'm a terrible runner and wasn't able to catch Dan (who completed his first marathon last year). We all finished in a great time and had a blast! Then we sat by the lake for the next 3 days and played on the jet ski! Rough life. Cooper even became more adventurous and waded deeper into the water than ever before!

Our group getting ready for the big race!

Our cheering squad wasted no time getting their drinks, and Dan was excited to cross the finish line!

Jennifer did the relay, and she did both the swim and the run! Ben was kind enough to let me run with him most of the way back in the run. Thanks Ben!

Now that I had so much time on my hands, I decided I would use it to organize the apartment and cleanup. We've been living here for over a year, and I still can't get Tim to unpack some of his stupid boxes, so I'm going to start throwing things since he clearly doesn't need them. I also decided I couldn't handle our Walmart kitchen table anymore! So Tim and I finally bought a grown-up puppy-resistant table from Steinhafels, and sold our current table for $10! Our current table was so unstable that when you used a knife and fork to cut a piece of food, the whole table rocked back and forth with each cut! I couldn't take it anymore! So here is our brand new, beautiful table!

Our old table compared to our beautiful new, counter-height table!

It has stone pieces on top, which gives it character, and the counter-height level means that the dog can't jump into our labs and put his head on the table! However I did discover that 2-year old can still climb onto the chairs. So it is not child-proof.

I also wanted to use my time off as a chance to do some Wisconsin activities that I had not done before. One of the biggest one on my list was going to Noah's Ark, America's largest waterpark!! Tim and I finally found a day when he wasn't working and the weather was fantastic, and we drove up to the Wisconsin Dells and spent a day splashing on the slides and in the wave pool! It was sooooo much fun! Luckily it was close enough to home too so that we could leave Cooper for the day, but he wasn't alone for an unreasonable amount of time! It was so much fun! Now I need to get to Six Flags sometime!

And next on my little update, it Cooper got coned! We're still not sure what happened, but we started noticing a few lumps on his neck and he wouldn't stop scratching them. We took him to the vet, and she shaved down the spot to get a better look (and charged up $10 to do so, what?!). Looks like he got bitten or stung by something, and had kept scratching at it until it made more scratches and got even worse! We tried to be vigilant about keeping him from scratching, but it wasn't doing the trick. First we tried putting a sock on his foot, but we eventually decided he needed to be coned. He's getting used to the cone now, but it's super traumatic putting the cone on and taking it off, it totally freaks him out! He looks pretty sad in it, but again he is getting used to it so it's not so bad!

He looks so sad, but it's for his own good! Hopefully he won't need to cone for very long!

Happy Birthday Cooper!

2009-08-04T11:32:00.001-05:00

Today Cooper turned one year old! Our little boy is growing up so fast! He now weights 25 pounds, and can easily jump onto the top of the couch in one swift motion. His favorite activities include spying on the neighbors (and reporting back to us on all injustices being committed), sleeping on the top of the couch, wrestling, and begging for food from Tim (who always gives in). He loves to cuddle, sleep on Tim's feet, and break into his treat jar. We recently taught him "high-5!" just in time for the football season! It took him exactly one day to learn how to do it, it's so cute!

For his birthday, Cooper got a few presents. Grandma Court bought him a wonderful travel bed for the car, but unfortunately we got the wrong size so we had to exchange it and we are not able to use it yet, but it will be wonderful! Tim bought him two new "Jeffreys", his favorite giraffe stuffed toy to play with. It took him only one day to rip Jeffrey the 9ths head off (luckily he bought 2!). And one of my coworkers had made a stew with a meat bone, so I gave Cooper the meat bone. That kept him happy for the entire day! Unfortunately it gave him a bone hangover and he threw up a little the next day (sign of a good birthday!) so we had to take it away from him.

Overall, I think he had a great birthday!

The Honeymoon!

2009-06-22T17:03:00.001-05:00

So like I was saying, Tim and I desperately needed a break after the weekend of our wedding. Although it was a blast, we needed to get away from the stress of planning, executing, and dealing with the wedding, not to mention we both needed a vacation from work! Tim took care of planning our entire honeymoon, and with Dan's airline miles, Monday morning we were off for Maui, Hawaii!

Maui Airpot and Welcome (Aloha!) Sign

Our Condo looking inside. There was a loft too!

Day 1: Beach Day. It took us all day to get to Hawaii (3 flights), so we took the first day as a beach day. Tim found us a condo with an ocean view, and it was perfect. Full kitchen, eating area, and balcony, it was very relaxing for our time there. The first morning we made pancakes for breakfast with items previous vacationers had left there (delicious!). Then we headed to one of the many beaches in Hawaii. Tim played in the waves, trying to ride them back to shore. He succeeded at one point, and crashed onto the sand because he didn't expect it to work! We spent the day there, and then went grocery shopping. Boy, they aren't kidding when they say things in Hawaii are more expensive! We got groceries for the week, made sandwiches for lunch back at the condo, and hung out on our balcony listening to the ocean.

Me at the beach, and Tim jumping in the waves.

That night we went to the Hula Grill, and we each got a fish dinner (big step for both of us). Delicious!

Day 2: Snorkel Cruise. Today we went on an all day snorkel cruise. This meant we had to get up early (which even Tim was able to manage!). We left at 8am, and headed out to Molokini crater, a popular place for snorkeling. We had a continental breakfast and signed up for Snuba (a cross between snorkling and scuba diving, read here). We also rented a really nice digital camera with a waterproof covering so we could take all the pictures we wanted that they then gave to us on a CD. Best deal ever! The snorkling was amazing, and we got some incredible pictures! Then we tried snuba, which was amazing (and Tim's favorite part of our whole trip)! We got to dive deeper than we would from just snorkling, but did not require scuba certification or gear. It was so cool! Then we went to Turtle Town to snorkle some more after our BBQ lunch. It was really wavy at Turtle Town, so it was difficult to see with the sand kicked up from the bottom. It was still tons of fun to swim in the ocean and see all the fish! That night we went out for dinner at Stella Blues, another delicious meal!

Tim in the Snuba gear. Some of the fish we saw.

Turtle town, and Tim and I in our snorkle masks!

Day 3: Parasailing and Aquarium. Parasailing was a blast! They hook you up to a giant parachute and slowly reel you out to the right altitude and drive you around. It's so quiet that high up and so peaceful, and you can see everything! We were up there for almost 10 minutes, and it was really awesome. Unfortunately we thought we would have a chance to put on sunscreen and we did not (the boat bounced around too much), so we were a bit pink by the time we got back! So we decided to go to the aquarium to get out of the sun for a while! I wasn't as excited about the aquarium, because we've been to aquariums, but Tim loves them and honestly, it was a great choice! There were so many unique fish that we had never seen before! It was really cool!

Parasailing. Tons of fun!

The Maui Ocean Center, and the closest we got to sea turtle the entire time we were in Hawaii!

The displays were really cool, and some of the fish were really unique!

Day 4: Road to Hana. The road to Hana is a wonderful way to drive around the entire island. While Hana itself is not very exciting (it is a tiny tiny town), the drive was incredible. We packed a lunch and set out for the day. The first part of the drive takes you across the northern coast of Maui, which is lush, tropical, rainforest like right up against the ocean. It was beautiful. We stopped along the way to take pictures at a few select scenic areas. The road is so famous because every corner is a hairpin corner; no exaggeration. We averaged 24 mph according to our rental car over the 3 hours it took us to get to Hana! We stopped for lunch on a rocky beach outside of Hana, and then headed south to complete the drive. The southern part of the island is completely dry, like a desert right up against the ocean! Sand, dirt, rocks, and cattle farms, right along the ocean. It was an incredible drive, probably my favorite part of the trip! It took us the whole day, but it was tons of fun.

Hana was only 52 miles away, but it took us 3 hours!

We stopped to eat at the rocky beach, and then the dry side of the island looked like a desert!

Day 5: Helicopter Tour and Sunset Dinner Cruise. We ended our trip with a helicopter tour of Maui. I was not sure this trip would be very exciting, but Tim went ahead and signed us up anyway. It was super cool! We got upgraded to the longer tour that included another island (Moliki), that has a few small towns and cities but a large part of the island is uninhabited. It's know for having the worlds largest seacliffs, and some of the most spectacular waterfalls that start way up in the mountains and run all the way down to the valley floors. It was beautiful. The view from the ocean was amazing. We also flew around Maui seeing a few select spots that we were not able to visit by car. That evening we went on a sunset dinner cruise with lots of other couples. We had a delicious dinner, and watched the sunset from the harbor. It was a wonderful way to end our tour!

The valleys of Moliki, and the fishing areas that they used to use to catch fish.

The worlds steepest sea cliffs, and the waterfalls!

Day 6: Last Day. The next day we had to leave, but not until later in the evening. We decided to spend the day down at the pool of the condo. As we were getting ready, someone was trying to get into our room. We opened the door and found a confused man standing there. Turns out he was with the cleaning crew, and we were supposed to be gone by noon! Luckily they let us stay, because our flight was not until 9pm. We relaxed by the beach, went out to each one last time, and wrapped up one incredible trip to Hawaii!

Our Wedding Day!!

2009-06-15T15:43:00.000-05:00

For a visual documentation of the day, check out our wedding pictures from our photographer:

www.angelicangles.com
-- Go to Client Galleries
-- Click on Caitlin and Tim (June 13, 2009)
-- username: cemacnair@gmail.com
password: mcnair (yes, without the 'a')

The Big Day: The only thing I was nervous about the morning of our wedding was hoping that all of the pieces necessary to make the day run smoothly would fit together perfectly! It had rained the night before, so it was wet outside, but it didn't take long for the sun to come out and dry up the little bit of moisture remaining. The weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold, and a bit overcast so we weren't squinting in all the pictures! I was up at 7:30am to shower and get ready for our hair appointments, while Tim rolled over and slept for another hour (at least!). My mom, the girls and I were at the hair salon by 9:00am. We each had our own hair stylist, and one our hair was done we got our make-up done. We were running a bit late though, and didn't get to the country club until close to 11:00am (when we were supposed to be leaving in the limo). We quickly got ready, and Tim and I staged our first meeting (he stood facing the gazebo and I walked up behind him while I photographer took pictures... it was cute :o) ).

Then we were off! The limo was perfectly on time, and I hoped that the list Tim and I had made of everything that needed to get done at the country club would be finished without much problem (and it was, not a single problem!). We first went to the Memorial Union to get pictures, and then to the Wisconsin Capitol to get some more pictures. The pictures were great! We had champagne, sandwiches from Milios, and had a great time. I also had my high school friends come along, since most of them had never been to Wisconsin and our wedding was on the outskirts of town. It was nice to show them around since they had all traveled so far to come out here!

Once we were done at the Capitol we headed back to the country club. There we finished up photos before our guests arrived. Everything had been taken care of while we were away. Everything was in place, chairs were set, centerpieces perfect, everything was great, we really had the best help would could have hoped for! Nothing was late, nothing was missing, it was wonderful. Tim stayed out to greet our arriving guests, while I went off to hide in the changing room (no one is supposed to see the bride, yada yada). The ceremony got started right on time, and it was short and sweet just as we had planned. 15 minutes, we had our friend Chrissy marry us (ordained online, and we are eternally greatful, Chrissy did an amazing job!), and we walked back down the aisle to Beer Barrell Polka (we didn't tell anyone, the crowd got a kick out of it!). We finished up family pictures, and then the party took off.

We did a grand march to enter for dinner, so they announced each of our names in the wedding party, as well as our parents, and we all danced it! Dinner was delicious. Instead of having people ding glasses, they were required to sing us a song with the word "love" or "kiss" in it. Luckily (ha) we had a creative crowd, and the microphone was passed around the room and barely ever rested for longer than a few minutes! We were kissing quite a bit through dinner, but it was very entetaining to see the kinds of songs people chose! It was far more fun than dinging of glasses.

Once the cake had been served, we watched a 3 minute slideshow that Diana put together of pictures from both of our childhoods. It was really sweet, and I loved it! Then the dancing started, and the alcohol started to flow, and the craziness started. The rest of the night was fantastic. We danced the hora, sang Badger songs, tossed the bouquet, drank beer, sang more songs, and had a great night! There were only a few bad things that happened. One of our wedding guests was out of control, and caused a scene at the wedding, at the hotel, and issues the following day as well. We also lost one of our wedding guests, who was so drunk he tried to sleep on a tree at the golf course (luckily we found him, safe and sound!). Also, my dad was trying to take down the decorations from the gazebo at the very end of the night, and the chair he was standing on slipped off the gazebo and he fell face first onto the concrete, breaking his upper jaw in 2 places. He was a trooper though, and stayed for the next 2 days in Madison, didn't need pain medication, and had a good time (although on a liquid diet). He did have to have his jaw wired shut for 4 weeks, but he is doing just fine!

Aside from the few minor mishaps, the wedding was perfect! The next day the brunch was great (thanks again to John and Jennifer!), although Tim was deathly sick (not from drinking). Luckily he had been on my health insurance for exactly 12 hours, so we got him to urgent care and got him put on allergy medication. Turns out his allergies were so bad it was giving him sinus headaches and upset stomachs and all sorts of issues. The medicine is doing wonders and he seems to be pretty healthy now! The rest of Sunday went well, we said goodbye to many of our guests, brought the gifts back to our apartment, hung out with Tim's parents before they left, and finished up some last minute things. It was a great weekend, but after the stress of the end of the night and Sunday morning I was ready for our honeymoon!

Overall, our wedding was fantastic! Tim and I had a great time, and it sounds like our guests did too. Thanks again to everyone who helped us plan it! My parents, Tim's parents, our wedding party, and everyone who helped us set up, clean up, and keep things running smoothly! We couldn't have done it without all the help that we had, and we really appreciate that we had such a great support network. Thanks for making our day so wonderful!

Pre-Wedding Events!!

2009-06-14T14:06:00.008-05:00

On June 13 Tim and I said our vows, tied the knot, and celebrated! But the celebrating actually began Thursday night, when many people arrived in Wisconsin. Here's a quick recap of the events from Friday and Saturday, I'll get to the wedding soon:

Thursday: My parents and Tim's parents got in Thursday morning. My Maid-of-Honor Jamie and our friend Roger got in Thursday morning as well. Jamie and I got our nails done, picked up my dress, and then met Roger for lunch. We went down to State Street, ate at BW3, and wandered around for a little bit. Later, we went to Tim's softball game, where we met up with Tim's parents, my parents, and Tim's uncle and grandmother. Then most of the wedding party, my parents, and some of our college friends all went to Essen Haus. My friends Roger and Jamie made our group shirts that said "Final Fling, Before the Ring!" with goofy pictures of Tim and myself on the front. They were hilarious! Tim and I had special ones that said Groom and Bride. We drank, and partied, and had a great time! The night got blurry, but it was awesome!

We had a great group, and it was a lot of fun!

Jamie, Tim, and my parents drinking from the boot!

The end of the night was very fuzzy.... ah, another good night Essen Haus!

Friday: We all got a slow start to Friday morning, considering our activities of the night before ;o) We headed over to Lake Windsor Golf Club to help set up. This involved setting up the room, gettings things ready and in place for the next day! We also had our rehearsal practice, where we ran through the entire ceremony. We were missing 2 groomsmen, but we made do!

Roger and Diana helped us put the tulle up on the ceiling to decorate, and Julia and John took care of removing all spiderwebs and nastiness from the gazebo.

The rehearsal, and our rehearsal guests! When we were saying out "I Do's" I threw in a "Maybe", just for fun. Tim was mildly amused (everyone else thought it was hilarious!).

Everything ran smoothly. Then we went to the rehearsal dinner at Frescos restaurant. Tim's parents took care of all these arrangements, and it went perfectly! The food was delicious, Tim's dad made a wonderful toast, we gave our wedding party their gifts (miniboots for the men, chocolate gift baskets for the girls), and we mingled with our guests.

Then we headed to the hotel for the meet-and-greet with all of our out-of-town guests. It was wondeful. Jennifer and her friend Carol did a wonderful job, and went above and beyond to make the rooms we used look amazing! Jennifer, her sister Jody, and Tim's cousin Abby presented us with a scrapbook made from photos and memories of our friends and families! It was beautiful! There were stories that people shared in letters pasted onto scrapbook pages with photos of the past and present. There was stuff from friends, family, stories of the childhood, stories from college, poems, collages, everything! It was amazing. Here are a few shots from the night:

We mingled for the night, and had a great time! It was a long day, but it was a really good day! The next day was our wedding!

Congratulations Julia and John!

2009-05-11T13:24:00.004-05:00

On May 10 Julia graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, OH, and her boyfriend John got his associates degree (maybe not the same date, but celebrated together anyway). My parents and myself flew out ot Ohio to celebrate. Julia graduated with a degree in psychology. Her plan now is to look for a job and take some time off (exactly what I did too!) before she persues a higher degree. We're so proud of you Julia!

We had a great time in Ohio. We started off by going to the zoo.

The orangutans were having fun, and they were even drinking from a water fountain. We got their just in time for the feeding of the sea animals, so the manatees and stingrays were chowing down on lettuce.

The tigers were stalking around too, and the sea otters were swimming around. When I come back in another life, I want to be a sea otter. They look like they have so much fun in there! Well, the ones in the zoo at least, not sure if I'd handle the survival of the fittest thing.

The bears were fighting and splashing around in the water.

On Sunday we went down to the campus early to take pictures early before the hoads of students showed up. Being a small campus, it didn't us too long to hit the highlights. It was a beautiful day, and the campus is gorgeous. Here are some of the pictures I took:

We went to the football stadium, and the clock tower...

and honestly a few more buildings that I know are important to Julia but I do not remember what they are!

This rock is apparently repainted many times a year by fraternities, sororities, and various organizations, so it never looks the same twice or for very long!

To make a long story short, we decided to skip the ceremony (thank goodness, because they are SOO boring), and we got icecream instead (delicious!). Later we went back for the psychology open house, where we got to meet some of Julia's favorite professors and some of the people that she has worked with closely over the past 4 years. It was neat to finally meet some of the people my parents had heard her speak so much about. I didn't know many of them, but John kept making fun of me for eating all the cake (I'm a fat kid at heart).

We also went out to eat at Quaker Steak and a mom and pop restaurant the night of Julia's graduation. Good food, good family, and a good weekend. Congrats again Julia and John!

Andrea gets married!

2009-04-12T12:44:00.000-05:00

Andrea and Ben got married! Andrea is one of my coworkers from the AIDS Vaccine Lab, and she and her boyfriend of 4 years decided they were ready to get married!

They decided to keep their wedding incredibly simply, but very fun! They had a small wedding with just family on Friday afternoon, April 10. They walked over to the lake from their apartment, had a justice of the peace marry them, short simply sweet ceremony, and then went out to dinner. The next night they had a party in a barn, catered by a BBQ restaurant, good beer, and their favorite blue grass band from Madison! It was a blast! They did a wonderful job decorating, with each centerpiece sitting on a bike cog. It was really sweet, and Tim and I had a grea time. Unfortunately I did not manage to get a picture of the happy couple, or of Tim and myself, but here are the pictures I did take:

My parents came to visit!

2009-03-30T13:05:00.000-05:00

To prepare for the wedding, my parents made the trip out to Wisconsin to spend some time with us, and to help us take care of some of the details of the wedding. We had a great time! We took my parents to Essen Haus, where I introduced my parents to the German drinking of Wisconsin, the rules of the boots, and good beer! Tim and I took them to Nifty Fifty, a restaurant decorated with 50s advertisements, TV shows, signs, and a juke box with the best oldies! Not to mention candy for 10 cents and classic burgers and shakes. Yum! I also showed them where I work, and my parents were excited to see the lab that I always talk about.

That Saturday we spent most of the day at Lake Windsor Golf Club. We did the food tasting, worked on the layout of the room, figured out the exact order of events, the timing of each thing, contact info for each vendor, etc. It took all day, required quite a number of arguments, but eventually we got everything all figured out. A whole lot of things done off of the To-Do List!

Birthdays!

2009-03-25T13:18:00.001-05:00

Happy birthday to Tim and my mom! Tim is 25 years old now, and my mom is ever young ;o) For Tim's birthday I got him a grill that is painted like a baseball. He loves going to Brewers games, and his grill was stolen last year, so I decided this one would be perfect! Hopefully he'll get to use it quite a bit! I was unable to celebrate with my mom (that long distance thing and all), but I wished her a happy birthday from afar!

Unfortunately we got a rough start to Tim's birthday. A friend of ours had a scheduling conflict, and asked if we could watch his dog from early in the morning until he got off work in the evening. We figured it would be no problem. He dropped off Morgan very early, and the trouble started right away. Cooper knew that Morgan was in our living room (stupid dog hypersensitive smell), and was going nuts whining and crying. In turn Morgan heard him, and being a beagle, started barking (at 5am... we live in an apartment complex). Since it was Tim's birthday, I decided I would try to handle it and let him sleep. I tried to let the dogs play together for a bit to tire them out. That just made them more awake. So I tried separating them again. Then they cried and howled. I tried putting them in the kitchen together, but they freaked out when I was out of sight. I tried putting them in the same crate together, but it was too small and they freaked out when I left. HOLY CRAP! So I tried taking them outside, but all they wanted to do was play. So I took them back inside, at which time Morgan peed on the carpet and Cooper pooped on the carpet.

Then I had to wake Tim up, becuase I couldn't handle the dogs and cleaning the carpet simultaneously. So began Tim's birthday! We couldn't let either dog out of our site because Morgan kept having accidents, so we had to take turns watching them and showering and getting ready for work. Eventually we had to crate them both, Cooper in our room and Morgan in the living room. We even had to tell our complex that we had 2 dogs for the day so they wouldn't be concerned about the noise coming out of our apartment while we were away. We both had to come home at lunch to take care of the dogs too! It was quite a mess! Definitely a failed experiment. Our friend felt really bad, since neither of us had anticipated this being such a mess, but we realized that the dogs just get too excited around each other, and 5am was a bad time to start! Ah, so it goes!

Later that night Tim and I got food at Granite City, a restaurant not far from our apartment. It was really good! Unfortunately we both had to work the next day, so we couldn't go out for a drink or stay out late anywhere (because we're old now). Maybe next year!

Tim is the Employee of the Month!

2009-03-20T12:36:00.001-05:00

Congratulations Tim! He was named the Employee of the Month at Dick's Sporting Goods (or as the Big Dick of the Month as our friend affectionately called him). He's been discussing getting promoted to a Front End Coordinator (FEC) from a cashier, but that will require dedicating more hours and working nights and weekends (which he had previously kept open for working at the Wisconsin State Journal and covering sports). He may accept the promotion once the sports end for high schools in the spring. But for now, congrats to Tim!

Graduate school interviews

2009-03-15T12:15:00.000-05:00

Many people had been asking about graduate school through the winter, and I was deliberately avoiding the issue and here's why: it wasn't going the way I had anticipated. I applied to 6 schools, and you always expect some rejections, but not all of them to be rejections.

Tim and I were excited to use this as a chance to leave Wisconsin and explore some other part of the country. I applied to 2 schools on the west coast, 2 in the midwest, and 2 on the east coast. We were excited to go anywhere but Madison. Nothing is wrong with Madison, but I've been living here for 6 years, Tim has been in Wisconsin his ENTIRE life, and we were ready to try something different.

But luck would not have it that way. I did not get into any of the other 5 schools I applied to, but I did get an interview at Wisconsin. The interview went really well, and all of my recommendations were coming from the pathology department, and shortly after my interview I was offered a spot in the University of Wisconsin Cellular and Molecular Pathology department.

I was excited, but not as excited as I would have been to go somewhere else. I wanted to explore a new city, meet all new professors and staff and faculty, get lost finding classes, find a new apartment, go on an adventure and try something different. Tim and I were ready to go, but I think I reached high and fell short. It me me some time to get really excited, because nothing in my life changed leading up to graduate school. I would keep working, I didn't have to move, I could make plans for month into the future, etc.

But I am excited. I'm starting graduate school, making new friends, taking new classes, and starting my rotations! But more on that later, I'm trying to stick to a chronological update!

Cooper got his first hair cut!

2009-02-18T11:17:00.000-06:00

Tim and I attempted to get Cooper's hair cut in November, and it was a royal disaster. The sound of the clippers terrified him, and he yelped every time they got near him. So basically we paid them to reshape his hair, fluff it up, a stick a bow on him.... great!

So we had to "practice" with him. Luckily Tim, being a guy, owns an electric razor. So we would put him in his crate, set the razor next to his crate and turn it on, and then feed him treats while it was on. Eventually he started getting closer to the razor, nudging it with his nose (cap was on, don't worry), and stopped caring. So we were finally ready for hair Cut Part 2! This went much better. We decided to completely shave him down, since his hair grows back so fast and it's so much easier to deal with short hair than long hair! So he looked a bit like a rat:

We also realized our dog was part dalmation! He has so many tiny little black spots that he did not have as a puppy!

One Tough Pirate

2009-01-19T09:59:00.003-06:00

When people ask where we go to work, its easiest to just name the company and say a few words about our particular contribution there. It's easy to lose track of the impact our jobs can have on others, especially when we do the same thing day in and day out. I work in an AIDS vaccine research lab, and while the big picture is to help eradicate a deadly disease in humans, our daily tasks do not include 'saving the world'. The research that takes place at our lab is basic in a sense, since we are simply trying to better understand HIV and it's simian (monkey) equivalent, SIV. The hope is that if we understand how the virus works, we can use this knowledge to create an effective vaccine. So while it's a good conversation starter to say where I work, I often lose track of the big picture and why it is important for all of us to continue doing what we do.

But when we have face time with individuals infected with the virus who are fighting the disease and the side-effects of potent medications, it serves as a strong reminder that our research is incredibly important. I do not personally know anyone with HIV, and so I often feel very disconnected from the work I do. Last week, our lab met with a local Madison AIDS activist, Bob Bowers, who has been HIV-positive for over 25 years. We were excited to meet with him and hear his story, and likewise Bob was excited to see our facility and better understand the kind of research we do; especially where we stand with developing a vaccine. Bob told us his story, how he became infected with the virus at age 21, and how he went from a life of drugs and partying to travelling around the country educating people on HIV and AIDS. Bob is a very unique man; covered in tattoos and holding nothing back, he tells his story in such a way that elementary school children and adults alike are captivated by his discussions. His message is not "Don't Do Drugs" or "Don't Have Sex", it's live your life and have fun but be careful. Bob also works hard to fight the stereotypes associates with HIV, including sexuality, lifestyle choices, and taboos about sex. His nickname is One Tough Pirate, and his website is www.onetoughpirate.com. If you get a chance, check it out.

I really enjoyed meeting with Bob, and it was a great chance for him to better understand the research that we do on the virus that has changed his life. It was a great experience, and I wouldn't miss another chance to hear him speak.

Christmas!

2008-12-31T15:19:00.020-06:00

Since my family is Jewish, the holiday of Christmas has little meaning or value to us. My family often celebrates it the same way the rest of the Jews do, by going out to a Chinese restaurant and then going to a movie! It's great :o) Needless to say, Christmas is not the biggest holiday for us. Since I was home for a week at Thanksgiving, and I need to save vacation time for graduate school interviews later this winter (hopefully, that is), I decided to stay in Madison for the first time in 5 years for Christmas and New Years.

Tim and I were both able to get off for 5 days, and decided to make the long drive up to visit Tim's parents in Spicer, MN. We decided to leave at 12:30am (yes am!) because Madison was going to get pounded with oh-my-good-grief-MORE snow sometime around 3am and we never would have been able to safely get up to Spicer. I was in bed, in my PJs, with the lights off, when Tim came home from work and wanted to leave (grrrrr). Although I was NOT thrilled to drive through the night, it worked out well because Cooper slept the whole way and we were able to miss the snow storm that Madison DID indeed get.

We arrived in Spicer at the crack of dawn around 7:30am. Luckily, Tim's parents are wonderful and took great care of us, so from the moment we arrived we were fed like royalty, Cooper was spoiled rotten, and the relaxation began! Tim's brother, Dan, was also home for the holidays, and his girlfriend Sarah joined us on Friday (this was the first time Tim and I met her and we liked her very much :o) ). I also got to celebrate Christmas "Court" style. There were lots of presents for everyone (including Cooper! Jennifer and John like to spoil their grand-puppy), TONS of great food, and TONS of great sugary treats. Here are some of the images from the weekend:

Tim and Dan opened their gifts to each other first:

Cooper helped open some of his presents too; and he had a lot:

Dan got these two flying remote control helicopters that we had way more fun with than anyone over the age of 6 should:

We also lit the Chanukah candles three nights since Jennifer is also Jewish so we had quite a few Jews in one room (Tim knows the Chanukah prayer, and his basketball team used to make him say it before some of their games in high school, haha!):

We had a very relaxing weekend! I was not excited about the 6 hour drive back, but Cooper only had one mini-meltdown and we were able to make good time so it wasn't too bad. Not to mention it wasn't in the middle of the night this time! Thanks Jennifer and John for a great weekend!

First Bath, First Snow

2008-12-20T15:40:00.012-06:00

Since Tim and I aren't very exciting, I'll just keep posting about Super Chewper Cooper. Although Cooper has lost most of his baby teeth, he did manage to chew threw a lamp power cord and my computer power cord, as well as discover the games of "grab the toilet paper and run" and "jump on the kitchen chairs and eat people's food"! Although we now refer to him as "trouble" more often than we do by his own name, he is still a great puppy! He recently got his first bath. After all the snow, and the rain, and the muddy snow, and the freezing muddy snow, we decided it was time to wash him. Our white puppy wasn't looking so white anymore.Cooper wasn't a big fan, but he obliged:

It was very wet, but totally worth it! He thought he were punishing him though, since spent most of the day in the kitchen because he was always wet after walks, and then we locked him in the kitchen after his bath:

Well just in time for his bath, we got our first big snow storm. Although we have gotten snow a few times, we got pounded on Friday. We're talking 10" between midnight and dawn! This is what our steps looked like at 6am:

Cooper took one look at this and said "I'm going back to bed." I didn't blame him. We tried a little later, when the snow wasn't coming down sideways, and he at least gave it a shot. Keep in mind that 10" of snow comes up to his shoulders, so the other mode of transportation through this mess is bounding through the powder. Here's how deep it was (Cooper is walking through a car tire track):

Cooper had tons of fun eating, running, playing and galloping through the snow. Unfortunately the piles are very deep (some higher than me and Tim) so he's having some trouble understanding what to do! But he still loves it, as long as it isn't -20 and windy!

Next week, Tim, Cooper, and I are heading up to Spicer, MN to spend Christmas with Tim's parents and his brother Dan. Tim and I both have off for Christmas Eve and Christmas, and adding in Friday we are turning next week into a 5 day weekend. We are both very excited! I haven't been up to visit Tim's parents in over a year, so I'm looking forward to spending Tim at their place. More to come then!

Cooper, Thanksgiving, Grad School, Cooper, Stuff

2008-12-14T16:11:00.006-06:00

As usual, another month has passed and so much has happened without a single update! My time flies! Well November flew by for us because Cooper is now keeping us very busy. It turns out that we got not only a crazy puppy, but a bit of a sick puppy. We noticed he was having digestive trouble, and had to take him to a vet only 7 days after we brought him home. Turns out he had campylobacter, a bacteria that not only made him pretty sick, but could make humans pretty sick too. It was pretty serious, but once he got put onto antibiotic he got better quickly, and neither Tim nor I got sick from him. In addition, he also had a yeast infection in both ears, and he probably has some kind of allergies that makes his eyes red! Our poor puppy. However none of this has seemed to phase him, as he has continued to run around, play with his toys, steal Tim's socks from his laundry basket, and steal our shoes to chew on the shoelaces. Cooper has also been discovering snow, and the joys of bounding through deep drifts!

Tim has been keeping incredibly busy too. He has been work at Dick's Sporting Goods quite frequently now that the Christmas shopping season is completely upon us. Instead of opening at 9am, they have been opening at 8am, and next week at 7am. This means that Tim, who is NOT NOT NOT DEFINITELY NOT a morning person, has been forced to get out of bed at hours he wasn't actually aware existed! This unfortunately kept him in Wisconsin over Thanksgiving, as he had the joy of working Black Friday. Luckily his parents and his brother, Dan, were able to come to Madison to spend Thanksgiving with him and Cooper. I was able to go home to Connecticut for the first time in 11 months (it really had been that long!). I got to see my parents, a couple high school friends, and spent a good amount of time relaxing. I also spent a lot of time working on graduate school applications. I completed most of them, and finished the last one once I came back to Wisconsin. I am all finishd applying, and now I get to wait. If all goes wel, I will be invited to interview at several schools, and then hopefully will be accepted to a few as well. The final list of schools is:

- University of Wisconsin
- Univeristy of Michigan
- University of Washington - Seattle
- Oregon Health and Science Univeristy
- Yale University
- University of Virginia

I applied to microbiology programs with the intent to study virology and immunology, possibly sticking with HIV research, returning to influenza research, or finding a new pathogen to study all together! Hopefully some of the schools like me; keep your fingers crossed! As of right now I do not know where I want to go. Wisconsin would be convenient, and it is a great school, but I'm going to see where I am accepted and decide from there.

And again, more Cooper stories! We have had him for over a month now, and he keeps us entertained every day! He has finally started to gain wait again now that he isn't sick, and last time weighed in close to 12lbs (he should be ~25-30lbs when full grown). In addition to bounding through snow, he has been working on his jumping skills. He can finally get on to the couch almost every time (he used to biff it 2 out of 3 times!), but has not yet mastered jumping on to our bed (it is fairly high in his defense). He has been teething like crazy, and therefore biting our hands in lieu of his toys (not our favorite game). We have started to teach him to sit, which he already did on his own most of the time, and to lie down, which he seems to have mastered in a day! Shake is in the near future! Cooper enjoys staring out the window of our apartment and contemplating life, or wondering what that squirrel is doing and how he is going to get it!

I promise to upload pictures sometime to keep these posts interesting, so if you stuck with me down to here, thanks for your commitment and dedication! Stay tuned for more!

Welcome Home Cooper!

2008-11-09T20:53:00.008-06:00

Just as we've been talking about, Tim and I finally got a puppy! We'd been looking all over, but most of the puppies we found were over 2 hours away. A coworker recommended we check out a pet store / rescue shelter in Madison and that's where we found Cooper! He's a black and white cocker spaniel, with a little brown mixed in. He came from a breeder, and he's already been neutred and gotten several vaccines (so we don't have to worry about too much medical stuff right now). HE'S SO SWEET! He's great with people and other dogs, loves to cuddle, has discovered it's fun to rip up Tim's newspapers, and just learned how to go down the stairs today (he used to just stand at the top and look confused)!

We took him home last Wednesday, and he's been doing really well with us. He was a little scared of his new surroudnings, since they were much bigger and a little scarier than his cage at the store. His first walk was a bit traumatic because it was wet, cold, and the blowing leaves scared the hell out of him. He has sinced discovered it's fun to run outside, play with some of the other dogs, eat the leaves (that'll show em!) When he got scared he would run up and sit on our feet, but when we were walking and didn't expect that he got booted a few times. He's a lot braver now so he doesn't do that as often and doesn't get kicked by accident!

He loves to be held, and he loves to snuggle up right next to you.

Cooper was pretty worn out the first day so he just came home, checked out a few things, and slept. He actually slept right through the night! He has sinced learned to wimper, howl, wine, and cry. We're working on his separation anxiety, which is already getting better.

I gave him a Gatorade bottle and he plays with it all the time! It's virtually indestructible, and when he bats at it it rolls across the room and he goes running after it. Tons of fun for him!

He also found our shoes. Luckily he hasn't decided to chew on them yet, only cuddle up on them. Again, Cooper loves to sit on our feet when he gets scared, and he also discovered that under the chairs is a fairly good hiding place (especially when the vacuum comes out). So far he's a great puppy!!

Engagement Photos!

2008-11-02T14:45:00.002-06:00

Our engagment photos are online! I can't post any here (cause it's stealing) but if you want you can check them out on the website:

www.angelicangles.com

username: cemacnair@gmail.com
password: macnair

We're going to use one of those photos for our Save-the-Date cards, so if you have a favorite let me know! Happy looking :o)

Is it really almost November?!

2008-10-26T20:36:00.004-05:00

Wow, time sure has been flying by! Somehow it is almost November, which means fall is almost over, and Wisconsin is about to be buried in a yet to be determined amount of ice and snow... oh winter. Lots has been happening with Tim and I since I last posted, and things are going to continue to be busy for a little while... at least until all my graduate school applications are in!

In preparation for our wedding, Tim and I finally got engagement photos taken! They are not online yet, but once they are I will be sure to post the link so everyone can view them. We took them at the Memorial Union Terrace (classic Madison location, and it's also important to Tim and I because it's part of the university and it's where we got engaged ;o) !). Our photographer seems very nice, and I'm excited to see how the pictures turned out!

We also finally got to go see the Wisconsin Badgers football team play! It was exciting until we were losing, and then we lost, and then it was disappointing. Luckily the first loss we saw was to Penn State, who is now one of the best teams in the country (makes it a little easier to cope with). The second time we got to see the Badgers they also lost, to Ohio State, but this time we forgot to bring our defense... it was not a good game to watch, and we left after the third quarter. I bet Tim could give a better recap of all the things that went wrong, so if you want more details you'll have to ask him! We won't get to see them play again for a couple weeks, but hopefully next time it will be better!

Tim has been working at the Wisconsin State Journal primarily at nights answering the phones when the coaches call in scores after matches/games/meets, but he was also given an opportunity to cover all of the state tournaments for high school tennis. This has kept him pretty busy over the last couple of weeks, spending most of the day at a tournament, coming home and pounding out an article, and then doing it again the next day. He's gotten to see some of the coaches and athletes he used to work with when he was in Lake Geneva, so it's been exciting for him to cover the events and see some of his past acquaintences! Tennis finally came to an end yesterday though, so he's not sure what he will be covering for the next season yet. Tim also have some exciting news, and he got a job working at Dicks Sporting Goods! Although it's not his dream job, it is a job he can work just during the day so his nights can stay open to cover sports and work at the Wisconsin State Journal. It will be low stress (for the most part) and will help pay the bills.

Tim having a job also means we can start looking for a puppy! Tim and I have been talking about getting a dog for over a year, so we are very excited to start looking and preparing! We are not sure what kind of dog we are going to get yet, because we have decided we are going to get one from one of the local shelters. We would like a dog about 30 pounds as an adult, so nothing too big or too small! I'll write more when we make a little more progress ;o)

As for me, I have been working on applying to Ph.D. programs. Lately I've been working on my personal statement, which is basically a summary of why they should except me over another candidate. It's basically a way to tell them about myself, grab their attention, and give me a little personality over the cut and dry academic record from college. It's been a little tough, but I'm getting a lot of good people to help me out. I've also started to ask people for recommendations, which include higher ups that I work with. It's good to have strong recommendations, especially from people within the field you plan on applying, so I'm hoping a strong personal statement and good recommendations will help me out a lot. I also recently became a published author! I will try to post a link, but I can't remember what it is right now! Applications for graduate school are due December 1 at the earliest, so I'm hoping to have them ready by mid-November (before Thanksgiving at least). Hopefully it all goes well!

Well that's the update for now. Hopefully I will be more prepared next time and I can get pictures uploaded too! I hope everyone else is doing well too!

Chicago Pictures, Weddings, Weddings, Weddings!

2008-09-06T19:56:00.021-05:00

Wow, the last month has been crazy! It's been filled with many weddings, the start of fantasy football, the start of ACTUAL football, college football, fall recreational soccer for me, and lots of work craziness. So lets back up a few weeks. I was in Chicago visiting a friend, and at the time I was unable to post any pictures because my blogger skills had not yet been refined. Well here are a few shots.

This was the menu from the restaurant we ate at the first night. Sorry, I have no idea what the name was! The menu had pictures of every item on the menu, and they had DOZENS!! There were pages upon page of this stuff! And a whole drink section too!! Athma and I got some awesome drinks there too (see below).

This is Athma's crazy mango jello drink. She probably knows the real name, but for now we'll call it mango jello drink. They were huge! And we got a TON of food and it was still sizzling and boiling when they brought it to us! I would highly recommend it, but knowing the name of the restaurant would be helpful (oops, I'll get back to that sometime).

The Air and Water Show was this weekend too, so there were tons of fighter jets flying throughout the city and (I swear it's true) between the buildings and upside down. It was cool to watch, but a little surprising when you weren't expecting one of the planes to come by. I wasn't able to get any pictures of the planes, but I did get some cool panoramic views of Chicago. Here's one:

We went to the Shedd Aquarium, which is super cool, and I have discovered my new favorite animal... the Sea Dragon. Not Sea Horse, Sea Dragon. They are nocturnal, and look like swimming seaweed. It's hard to get a picture of them because it's so dark, but if you Google them I'm sure there are pictures. We watched a bunch of movies and ate Chicago-style pizza and had a blast! It was a good weekend ;o) Then the following two weekends were dedicated to weddings.

Wedding #1: Mike and Meredith's Wedding

Two of our friends from college got married August 23 in Milwaukee, WI. Tim was one of the groomsmen, so the whole weekend was dedicated to the wedding. Most of Tim's good college friends were part of the wedding, so it was good chance to see friends that no longer live in Madison. We started with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, where the groomsmen got Wisconsin footballs signed by the head coach (AWESOME!) and then we went to The Safehouse. The Safehouse is a bar in Milwaukee that you need a password to get in to, and if you don't know the password you have to do something embarrassing that they broadcast to the entire bar. You then enter the bar through a secret passage, and the whole bar is spy themed. It's really cool! We also ordered a martini just so we could watch them send it in a crazy chute device around the entire bar.

The next day was the wedding. The church was really beautiful, lots of plants and running water. Mike and Meredith were both walked down the aisle by both parents, which I hadn't seen before but I really like the idea. This was the second Catholic wedding I've been to recently, so I was prepared for how things run (they don't teach us these things at Hebrew school). Here are a few pictures from the ceremony:

Then the wedding party went off and took pictures, and all of us girls went to the Canyon Grill and ordered way more food than we meant to (but it was delicious!). Then the reception started... and the booze started flowing. You can definitely tell as you look at the pictures (not all of the 100 pictures are posted here!). The reception was at a beautiful golf club, and the facilities were amazing. Here are a few pictures:

The reception was TONS of fun! They played a Badger Medley, all of the songs from our days at Wisconsin from the football games, our Alma Mater, and a variety of other crazy songs. I was exhausted by the end of the night! It was so much fun! Tim and I got a lot of good ideas for our wedding, which we should eventually get back to planning! The following weekend we had Tim's cousin's wedding in Arizona.

Wedding #2: Erin and Zachary's Wedding

The wedding was in Phoenix, Arizona. It was over Labor Day weekend, so the rehearsal dinner was on Saturday, the wedding on Sunday, and a brunch on Monday. There were a LOT of people at this wedding, and since so many were coming in to town everyone was included in the rehearsal dinner (about 150 people at least... it was very large). The wedding and reception were at the JW Marriott (which is where we were all staying). I didn't know anything about JW Marriott's, and if you don't know either, it's not really a hotel... it's a resort! There was a lazy river, valet parking was included, butlers to open your car door and let you into the hotel. It was crazy! I spent most of my time with Tim, his brother Dan, and their parents. This was the first time I got to meet his mom's side of the family, including her two sisters Robin (mother of the bride) and Jody, and her brother Scotty. I met lots of other relatives and cousins, and I'm still trying to keep them all straight (150 people, remember). It was a black tie wedding, and a Jewish wedding at that (I suddenly became the Jewish expert that Tim's family turned to with questions). Here are a few pictures:

The boys: Tim's brother Dan, their dad, and Tim.

The girls: Tim's mom and myself

My future family-in-law! We're dressed in our "black-tie" best here.

The ceremony was outside, in the Arizona heat, but luckily it was in the shade. Tim and Dan both did readings during the ceremony.

The cocktail hour just after the ceremony. It was very pretty outside, and it was nice and cool since the sun went down. Tim's mom and I felt great in our dresses, but the boys were not happy in their suits! The dinner was inside, and was delicious! However by the time we got to the dance, Tim, Dan, and I were exhausted (too many weddings). We ended up calling it an early night and heading back to our room. It was a great wedding though!

Finally this weekend, Tim and I have had NOTHING to do! We've stayed in Madison for the first time in almost a month, and we're finishing up organizing the apartment and getting extra things we need. I imagine tomorrow will include lots of lying on the couch and watching football. Eventually we'll need to get back to wedding planning! But for now, we're all weddinged out! Hopefully no one else will get married for a little while ;o)

Tim moves in!!

2008-08-20T18:58:00.002-05:00

Although Tim and I have technically had the new apartment since July 26, Tim was not actually able to move in until last Sunday, August 17. He was supposed to be able to borrow a truck from a friend's brother, but the friend needed it for work (since that is the trucks main purpose), and then the transmission was blown. So Tim had to wait an extra week and get a UHaul (my second favorite company, after Charter... lots of sarcasm here). Luckily things worked out well, and Tim is finally here!! He is making one more trip back to Lake Geneva to clean his apartment (yuck, I don't even want to think about it) and then we're finally settled! Now we just need to unpack all of these boxes!

That's about all the excitment here. Tim and I will be going to two weddings the next two weekends, one in Milwaukee for friends of ours and one in Arizona for Tim's cousins. After that I'm going to be all weddinged out! I also went to Chicago last weekend to visit a friend from high school, so two more weekends of not being around is going to be a bit overwhelming! I had a blast in Chicago though, went to the Shedd Aquarium, ate tons of good food, and watched the olympics and two really good movies; 21 and Definitely, Maybe. It was great to catch up too. Once all these weddings are over, maybe Tim and I will get back to planning our own! We'll see... ;o)

New Beginning and Long Update

2008-08-03T12:05:00.002-05:00

Some of my family, and now some of my friends, have created blogs to help people stay in touch. I've considered starting one, but now I'm actually doing it because it seems like a perfect time. A few days ago, Tim and I moved into our first apartment together! It's a nice apartment, two bedrooms, two baths, vaulted ceilings, in unit washer and dryer, wood burning fireplace (will be nice during those Wisconsin winters when it drops to -30F outside!), and a garage that will be nice for storage. It's in a great location, right behind the west side mall, near REI, a movie theatre, all kinds of shops and restaurants, and target! The place is a mess right now, and once I learn how to upload pictures I will make sure to do so! Once we get settled and Tim figures out a job, we are also going to get a puppy!! Many pictures will follow that one, but that is quite a ways down the road!

So here's what I'm up to! I'm still in Madison, Wisconsin, and overall things are going really well! I graduated last year, and for the past year I've been working in an AIDS Vaccine Research Lab here in Madison. Work is great, although as of recently some things have not been working so it's been frustrating. But that's kind of how science woks; it's a very frustrating field! But aside from that, work is great. I get along really well with everyone, the work is interesting, and it's great experience. I'm preparing to apply to graduate school this fall to attend a PhD program next year (assuming I get accepted somewhere!). My number one choice is, of course, Madison, since it means Tim and I can stay here and we won't have to move and he won't have to find a new job! UW is very competitive for graduate school, so it's not going to be easy, and I'm definitely looking at other schools all around the country. So basically next year is completely up in the air! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

As for other things, life is good. As of 3 days ago, Tim and I finally moved into our first apartment together... FINALLY! Well, I'VE moved in, Tim's lease is not up until the end of August so he's taking his sweet time moving. Hopefully this coming weekend we can really start to organize and make this place look a little more livable! Tim is still working on finding permanent work in the area, but he is freelancing for one paper and might be doing a part time job at another paper, so hopefully one of those will become a more permanent position. In the meantime, I'm the breadwinner of the house, which isn't exactly what my income can support! We'll make it work though. And once Tim does get a job, we are planning on getting a puppy!! I want a dog so badly, and our apartment lets us have a dog up to 30 pounds (perfect!). We're not sure what kind we will be getting since we are planning on going to the animal shelter, but we're thinking a spaniel or a terrier of some sort. I'm so excited! but again, that's a ways off! For now, I have 4 fish that keep me happy. One is a 4-year old guppy (I don't know how he isn't dead yet) a blue gourami, a catfish that I haven't seen more than twice since I bought him a couple months ago (he hates the light) and my newest fish is a red gourami. They are fairly entertaining for fish; who knew fish had personalities?!

And yes, we are finally underway with the wedding planning. We have a date, June 13, 2009, the place is picked out, and we have a photographer and I've found a wedding dress! We will be sending out save-the-dates and invitations and stuff once we get a little more settled (hopefully soon!). There's a lot left to do, but my parents are helping us a lot, even from Connecticut, and Tim's parents are helping us out too. It's a lot to deal with between work, graduate school, taking GREs, planning a wedding, and moving! It's nice to have a few of the big things figured out, and we need to get a few more big things figured out and then it's just the smaller details.

I'm still swimming and biking and running a bit, but mostly just to stay in shape now. I did do one triathlon this summer, in Ohio where my sister lives, and that went well (except for the run... swimming don't run... ever... ever... ever...)! It was an olympic distance, which was a 0.9 mile swim, a 25 mile bike, and a 6 mile run. The weather was great, and I had a lot of fun doing it :o) I might try to do one more event this summer or this fall, but I've yet to decide which one! In the meantime, I'm just swimming for fun, and I bike to work everyday, and I run ever once in a while. I also started playing soccer with some work peeps so that gives me another reason to run! I'm starting to get better too, seeing as I haven't played organized soccer since I was in 5th grade!

Well, that's really about it!! Nothing too exciting, but lots of things to figure out and plan over the next couple of months. Grad school apps are due early December, and then I get to play the "wait-around-and-sweat" game while they take their time making a decision. Should be fun... hopefully I'll have a puppy by then to distract me! For now, that's about all!