Wofford Football Game

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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!