Recent news
Some of you have already heard about much of the recent news that will be discussed below, but Kathleen and I wanted to make sure we got the most current information out there for everyone.

As many of you know, Kathleen’s father passed away this past Wednesday. He suffered a massive stroke Tuesday morning, following which he never regained consciousness. Kathleen was able to get out to San Diego to be with her family by late Tuesday evening, and I followed along early Wednesday morning. Following Dad’s wishes, he was able to give the gift of life to another gentleman through organ donation. We have since been working through making arrangements and getting life into some form of order, during which time we’ve been overwhelming blessed by the prayers, love, and help that the community and family have extended to Kathleen’s mother and to us all.

Services for Dad will be held at the family church in San Diego on Monday, July 3rd. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made to a memorial scholarship fund that has been established in Dad’s name. Anybody who needs specific info or details, please email me.

Kathleen is staying out in San Diego through to the services next week- luckily, when one telecommutes, Ann Arbor and San Diego are equidistant from Chicago ;) I am flying back to Ann Arbor (on the plane right now, actually) to take care of business at home, and I’ll be heading back out to San Diego next Sunday. So, again, if anyone needs info or details please feel free to email me or call my cell- on a somewhat humorous aside, I think my cell phone is sore from all the new numbers I’ve put into it in the last few days.

On a much more joyful note, Kathleen and I also wanted to let everyone know that we are expecting our first child! The new member of the family is due Dec. 28th, and we are experiencing the fun of sonograms and more doctor appointments than either of us have had in many years. In fact, before we had told everyone about the imminent arrival I had been telling my lab mates that I had all these doctor appointments for myself. Some of my poor coworkers began to get seriously worried about my health, convinced that I was hiding some dreadful health conditions from them! Needless to say, they were thrilled to learn that my subterfuge was hiding very happy news.

Kathleen and I wanted to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers as we begin the process of adjusting to life with Dad watching over us from above. Although we’ve always known how lucky we are to be blessed with the friends we have, the last few days have truly opened our eyes to the limitless abundance of love, friendship, and support that our friends and families shower upon us. Please know that your support has helped to ease our burdens and brought light to the shadows of recent days.

Hot! Hot! Hot!
We went to the Tigers/Yankees game yesterday. After all, what better way is there to celebrate the official start of summer than to go to a baseball game? Of course, we didn't count on the 93 degree game-time temp :)

It was one of those days where you're so hot that you don't want to eat... where your sweat seems to dry instantly on your skin... and where no matter how "sweatproof" your sunblock is, you still feel like it's dripping off.

However, it was our first MLB game of the season, and for that reason we enjoyed it. Plus, for $12, our seats weren't bad. Comerica has generally good sightlines, no matter where you sit, and there wasn't a single play that we couldn't see. (At least, not because of our seat location. There were a couple we missed because people stood up in front of us.)

Another college graduate in the family
Mood:  happy
I went back to Rock Island last Thursday to attend a graduation- my mom’s graduation from college! She had gone back to school to get her associate’s degree in child development so she could finally become a full-fledged teacher. Turns out she graduated magna cum laude and she was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa, which is the two-year college equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa. So, basically, my mom kicked a** and took names on her way to getting her college degree ;) She’s now going to be a teacher in a specialized pre-school at the community college, working with two year olds.

I’m still working on getting my head around my mom’s achievement. I mean, I’ve gotten my bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D., and I’m now staff at a major research institution, but I think that what my mom has accomplished goes far beyond anything I’ve been able to pull off. I’ve had the luxury of a support system that has always let me focus on my education and training, whereas Mom went back to school to achieve one of her dreams while still working and taking care of the household. I guess her getting her degree just reinforces in my mind how lucky I have been in life and what an amazing woman I have for a mother.

Here’s my mom in all her cap and gown splendor:

Easter in Ann Arbor
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: The Next Food Network Star
Today - well, last night actually - was the first Easter Vigil we’ve spent away from Sheil in quite a while (over 10 years for me). We went to vigil at our church here in Ann Arbor. The liturgy was very nice – about 10-15 people were baptized into the church, and over 30 people were confirmed. In fact, they cut back from the customary seven readings to four reading to keep the whole vigil running at a crisp three hours ;). Afterwards, we went to Denny’s to satisfy Kathleen’s craving for fried mozzarella sticks and my craving for caffeine, which I’d given up for Lent.

We had a bunch of people from lab over for Easter dinner today. Between the outrageous amount of food, Violet’s quest for treats from everybody, and me getting my a** kicked in MLB Slugfest by a guy who never had played the game before, it was a great and relaxing day.

In other news, I’ve finally finished all my postdoc fellowship applications and can now get back on the bench full time. My head is so full of experiments I want to do, it’s just a matter of getting them done. Good situation to be in.*
*Kathleen says "Good situation in which to be", and scolds me for the split infinitve. Guess that $100,000 M e d i l l education is worth something after all ;)

Random observations and occurrences-
1) I flew back to Chicago on Thursday; I took off from Detroit at 8:45 AM, landed in Chicago at 8:40 AM - and they say time travel is impossible…
2) Time spent cleaning and organizing the apartment is so worth it…
3) I think about 55 percent of the food we give Violet is turned into fur she sheds three days later…
4) The Ann Arbor library system, with its online item request system, is my favorite new toy…
5) We just watched “This Old Cub” on Friday night. If you haven’t seen it and really want to see an truly inspirational story of positive attitude overcoming adversity, I highly recommend it…
6) Oh yeah, and go Reggie for the Next Food Network Star!!!

Updates and such
Now Playing: Stargate Monday

Nothing much new going on here. We spent the weekend cleaning & shopping for our Easter party - we've now got a fridge full of meat and a lot of chocolate.

We also gave the puppy a bath - a couple weeks ago, we invested in all the stuff to wash her at home, because she gets all stressed out when we wash her at the dog-o-mat or the groomers. She definitely is more relaxed at home - hardly even tries to climb out of the tub or anything.

I stole the following from Christin:

Kathleen Now with opposable thumbs

'What will your business card say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

This is especially funny because I'm always telling Violet that if only she had opposable thumbs, she would be much more help around the house.

Questions and Comments on Opening Day
Now Playing: Pads vs. Giants
- Pads Win! Cubs Win!

- So Mike Piazza hits a homer in his first Padre at-bat. Does this mean I have to stop thinking of him as a ever-hated Dodger?

- Khalil Greene hits an upper-deck homer to left field (after almost homering to center on his first at-bat, a warning-track fly out). Since when is he a power hitter?

- I'm loving the anti-steroids commercial with the deflating sports equipment. You know which one I mean.

News and whatnot
Baseball season starts today! Woo!

The biggest news for us lately is that I chopped my hair off and donated it to Locks of Love last Saturday. Eleven inches of hair, gone! This is the third time I've donated my hair, and this time was a little different. The stylist, instead of just pulling all my hair into one big ponytail and cutting that off, put my hair into lots of little ponytails, then cut those off. She said that gives a better donation - makes sense. Plus, that way, you don't end up with lots of hair on the sides and no hair in the middle when the ponytails are gone.

So, since I knew I'd be seeing several blog readers in Chicago last week, I wanted to shock everyone and didn't post this story. But now, I've shocked everyone I can in person, so here are the long-awaited photos:



Other random news:
We are officially going to NYC for our anniversary this summer - the tickets are purchased and the hotel reserved.

The geese that have returned to the pond by our house have built a nest right by the edge of the pond - we're looking forward to seeing the goslings once they hatch.

We're thinking of having an Easter shindig, since this will be the first year we won't have church-related plans. For the past few years, we've always gone to Easter vigil, then a party with lots of friends from church on Easter Sunday. But, since we're going to be in Ann Arbor for Easter, we're probably going to have our own party.

Skating, showers, spring, Santino & swans
- Jimmy and I went ice skating a couple weeks ago with a bunch of folks from his new lab. I started out with figure skates, but kept catching the darn toe pick on the ice and nearly falling on my face. I guess the months of rollerblading has had an effect on my ability to skate with figure skates! So I switched to hockey skates and had a blast. In fact, we had so much fun we decided to invest in hockey skates for ourselves. We found some on eBay, and we are now the proud owners of our very own skates. Skating, anyone?

- I went to Chicago last Saturday for a baby shower for our friend Ginny. She and her husband have picked out a Classic Pooh theme for their nursery - so cute! We had tea at the Drake. I'd never actually been there before - it was really nice. Good tea & sandwiches and it was great to see all sorts of people that I haven't seen since we moved.

- Spring has sprung! My favorite time of the year has arrived, complete with pouring rainstorms. Wednesday night, we were watching the Project Runway finale and it was raining so hard that we had to turn the TV up. The finale, BTW, proved that we are definitely not good judges of high fashion. We loved Santino's collection and hated Chloe's. We didn't understand how Chloe's stuff, which we had liked all season, could have suddenly become so bizzare. On the other hand, we really liked Santino's dresses, and unlike the judges, thought that a more mature Santino was a good thing.

After the finale, it was still pouring rain and Violet was sacked out on the couch, but we had to take her out for a walk. The poor puppy kept giving me disgruntled looks while we were walking and trying to huddle into my legs, as if to say "Why did you wake me up and make me go out in this?" She hates water so much that she had to look where she stepped every time, so that she wouldn't accidentally step in a puddle. Poor little doggy.

- Yesterday, Violet and I saw some swans out on the pond by our apartment while we were walking. She was intrigued and wanted to investigate them, but I managed to convince her that swans could totally kick her butt.

- OK Troy, we blogged. Please don't put us on hiatus :)

Best. Husband. Ever.
Just a note to say acknowledge how wonderful my husband is for sending me flowers and a teddy bear - to the office in Chicago - for Valentine's Day, since we had to be apart. :)

Things that rock... and things that suck
Now Playing: Olympics!
Things that rock:

1) Olympic women's hockey in HD - all day, baby! The U.S. women's team just finished demolishing the Swiss team, despite a crazy number of penalties. Next up: Canada vs. Italy.

2) CBC's live Olympic coverage. When will NBC learn this lesson? I just don't understand. I mean, it's Saturday. I want to camp out in front of the TV and watch some Olympics. NBC owns, what, five networks? And only two of them are showing live action, and not simultaneously. Come on. Although, CBC is fun - I love the Canadian commercials.

Things that suck:

1) Forgetting that there's a frozen-over puddle on my normal dog-walking route (because the puddle is covered in just enough snow to make it invisible). Stepping on said puddle. Falling on one's butt, and jamming one's left arm. Ah well. I guess the good thing was that I was wearing gloves, so I didn't scrape my hand up, just bruised it.

2) Our blogging habits. Yes, we stink. We promised a vacation recap that never came. No excuses.

General notes: We've both been working pretty much non-stop on various projects. Jimmy's actually doing experiments again, and I've been loading data into our new software at work (yes, that's exactly as fun as it sounds). We're taking the day off, and celebrating Valentine's early tonight at a really nice restaurant in A2.