A baby album

Betsey wanted the world to see all three artist impressions of Little Bit. Looking forward to hearing your interpretation.

baby

Little Bit

Lawn Mower Decisions

Cayne and I have decided that maybe it's not really worth it to hire a yard service to take care of our yard this summer. Last year, our yard service did a great job, but let's be honest...we're in a rental where the yard hasn't really been properly cared for in years. There's actually more clover and weeds covering the ground than grass. Paying someone to do edging and to blow the clippings away seems silly, all things considered.

So, on Easter Sunday, we headed to the hardware store to look at lawn mowers and are trying to decide which one to get -- there are so many options and since neither of us has really had to take care of a lawn before, it's hard to know which ones are worthwhile. The biggest decision is probably between a self-propelled or push mower. Since the self-propelled is only $20 more and our backyard is a pretty good slope, this seems like the best option. Now we have to decide on which brand and price-range we want. I'm all for getting one that's not quite bottom-of-the-range, but Cayne has a good point that a bad lawn mower will just be frustrating.

Let us know if you have any suggestions! Right now, we're considering Lawn Boy, Toro, Craftsman, and Yard Machines.

Teddy Roosevelt Island

Today Cayne and I took a drive down George Washington Memorial Parkway to Theodore Roosevelt Island. This is a National Park we've wanted to explore for a while, but felt like we needed a car to get there! We walked all around the island in the Potomac enjoying the views of Arlington, Georgetown, etc and watching the Coast Guard helicopters patrol the Potomac.

Then we came home and I started cooking our early "Thanksgiving" dinner. We had Duck with orange sauce, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cloverleaf rolls, and cranberry sauce, all with a delicious Russian River Valley Pinot Noir and Pelligrino. Everything was delicious and we topped it off with pumpkin-spice cake (baked in a pumpkin-shaped cake pan) for dessert. We will have leftovers for days!

New Orleans

From New Orleans ASA Conference 2009

I went to New Orleans a couple of weeks ago, and enjoyed the city. Although I have no burning desire to go back, I think it is a great place to visit at least once. The food is amazing and the music is great. Here are some (crappy iPhone) photos if you are interested.

It's Autumn, Fall, and Halloween

From Autumn 09

Today I woke up to leaves. NOW I understand why Americans call it Fall and not Autumn, all to do with this crazy process of leaves falling off trees. Who would have thought such a thing was possible?

Yesterday Betsey took me to a haunted forest. We had to keep calling out "tippy toes" so that the 4 year old we were with I wasn't too scared. It was a lot of fun, normally I'm not one to appreciate screaming children, but somehow last night it was OK.

Tonight is my first REAL Halloween. We are armed to the teeth with candy, but Betsey wont let me have any of it :(.

Work, work, work...

We've been keeping ourselves busy with work for the past few weeks. Cayne has just left for New Orleans for an Anesthesia Conference to demonstrate (and hopefully sell) their software. So he's been busy designing updates to the software and adding new features, etc. in preparation for this.

I'm working with the graduate students to prepare for our November 10th Research Symposium where they get to showcase the research they've been working on to the entire NIH. I'm also getting ready to attend 2 conferences: the GREAT Group in St. Louis later this week and ABRCMS in Phoenix November 4-7th. And we've been interviewing for our new position in the GPP -- hopefully that search will be finalized soon!

I recently got a Montgomery County library card so that I can take advantage of "checking out" audiobooks (anyone who knows me know I'm not likely to read a library book) and this gives me something to listen to while waiting for the bus to/from work. I've been trying to listen to leadership and management books to gear up for supervising someone new at work. Not that I haven't supervised in the past but there are some pretty interesting theories out there about how to be a "good" manager that I wouldn't have thought of.