Published!

I wish I could make a bigger deal about this than I really can, but wanted to share this exciting news:


It doesn't count towards the PhD, but it's a little recognition. The disheartening news - I worked on this paper 3 years ago!

My next fun is a conference in March. I've submitted 3 abstracts and should find out in a month or so if any of them are accepted. If they are, I may get to go to the conference to present them. I should mention this conference will be in Hawaii, and during Spring break!!!

Whistle while you work!

My life is a lesson in self-discipline right now. Unfortunately, I'm a bad student! So, although you may think this post is about school, it is, instead, about what I do to avoid it (let's say relax after a long day!). I spend a lot of time in front of a computer running simulations, etc. I miss the hands-on aspects of engineering. That's what my evening activities provide! Here's my latest list of things I've fixed!

1) I noticed at work (they are remodeling) they were tossing some insulation. I've also noticed that at home, my room gets cold. What to do? Take the insulation home and put it above my bed!


Glad I did! Once I got up there, I noticed that there there was absolutely no insulation between three rafters directly above my bed! Problem solved!

Odd, it felt so much warmer that night!

2) Fixing 2 computers. It got me a great dinner with some great friends, but sometimes removing viruses can be time consuming! One computer was fixed with an online virus scan, but on the other I had to completely reinstall windows (and then everything else as well).

3) Fixed a friends printer. Somehow a tube had worked its way into the paper feed gearing and completely jammed it. I had to completely disassemble the printer to get it out. The fun part was that I actually put it back together correctly!

4) Repaired a closet door. It's one of those bifold, sliding doors. The wood is soft and the catches had broken through the wood, causing the rollers to not catch on the guide anymore. I rotated the entire door 180 degrees clockwise to use the holes on the other end, and it works great!

5) "Repaired" a furnace. Same friends had a problem - there furnace (gas) wouldn't ignite. After some playing around, I found the problem was that the insulation on the ignition wire had come off in a 2-inch length just before the pilot light. This wire ran close to the piping inside the furnace. Since that was closer than the pilot, the spark was shorting out to the furnace housing. I was thinking of just wrapping it in electrical tape. However, a quick test of the flammability of electrical tape convinced me that wouldn't be a good idea. Instead, I just tried to position the wire so that the path of least resistance was the pilot (just moved the wire as from from the sides as I could.

6) Fixed a friends wireless card. Two programs that controlled the wireless card were conflicting, but uninstalling one removed the driver, killing the network card. We didn't have the discs, and I couldn't download it anymore. Restored, downloaded the driver, re-unistalled (can you do that?) and then updated the driver. All good.

There might be a couple others, but that will work!

Happy Birthday, Lisa!!

Tomorrow is my sister-in-law's birthday. She is the one responsible for putting on my amazing 30th birthday party last year (in conjunction w/ my mother). Well, they are in the process of moving, her husband (Bryce) is already gone and working at his new job, and tomorrow is a baby shower so no party for her. Her sister organized a surprise party for her at Leatherby's tonight. We were actually all stuck in line waiting to get seated when she showed up, but still, she was surprised.

It was a lot of fun, and included some of her former roommates as well as family from both sides. Plenty of ice cream to go around, too. Here's Marci and Michelle posing while Jamie contemplates the effect of all that sugar on his teeth.


Here's Betsy showing us how much she likes her "food".


And then my small helping. They weren't kidding when they said they would add slabs of ice cream to it!


The best part, however, had to be Jamie's toast. As always, a classic moment. We desperately tried to get him to sing Happy Birthday Mr President as only he can. For some reason, he was too shy.



Followed up by a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday

My diversions

Despite working on my proposal, I still managed to have a little fun here at the end of the summer. I took a quick trip to Ohio the week before my proposal was due. Not my brightest idea ever, but it all worked out! While there, I picked raspberries, swam, kayaked, played, and did a little house work. I really have got to remember to take before pictures. Oh well, all I have is some after pictures.

First task was demoing a bathroom and framing a new wall. The fun part was getting all the trash out after the demo was done. That involved a very short step ladder, kids on the room, and a window! Had no lack of volunteers that night - everyone wanted to be on the roof!


The next real big project was adding a door to the new bathroom to one of the bedrooms. We had to move the closet over about 6 inches as well as cut a 2x4 in half so the door would open without hitting the wall! Not too shabby!


Almost as an afterthought, we decided to put in the recessed lighting in the kitchen. We bought the lights on Saturday evening, so we got them installed Monday morning before I flew out. I've now put in about 30 of these! Much easier when the beams are exposed like this!


Also, Bryce and Lisa keep threatening to move, so I've started trying to make it down to Sunday dinner every week until they actually move. I have a new roommate, so I thought it would be fun to take my new roommate and his friend down for Sunday beans. Although I'm still bitter no one touched my pasta salad, they had a good time. They are both the only kids in their families, so I think they were blown away by the fact there were 4 siblings there (and that's only 1/3rd of the family!).



And now we'll wrap this up with a Sophie photo shoot.

I proposed....

And they all said yes!

To clarify, that's the PhD proposal and not the one you're all hoping for. I passed the oral and have a little rewriting to do, but otherwise passed the written as well. Now I move on to, well, more writing!

Up for air, now time to go back under!

To everything, there is a season...

Have you ever realized there is a song for everything?

Well, here's my update. I have been given exactly one season to finish up. Let's call that season this Fall. That's right, after years of spinning circles and walking back and forth, my lab director has decided it's time for me to graduate. How, you ask, can he make me do that? Simple - stop paying me!

I was given a cut-off date of October. I may have managed to scrounge up a TA position that will cover me until the end of the semester. The fun part is that I have done more writing in the past 3 weeks than I have in the last 3 years! Well, maybe not, but definitely on my proposal. I'm up to 45 pages and counting!

To explain my position, I have to write a proposal on what I plan to do and present that to my committee (they call it a defense, which probably better conveys how the meetings go). I have to do that by August 21st if I want to graduate next semester since, oddly enough, they don't let you present both your proposal and final thesis in the same semester.

Once that is done, I have to write and submit for publication 3 papers. Luckily, one is already almost completed. However, there are 2 more I haven't even started. One that is done, I get to write the dreaded thesis, which promises to be at least 100 pages. Once I get that through the thesis editor, I get the opportunity to defend it to my committee. All that has to be done by January 8th at the latest. So, if you don't hear much from me in the next 4 months or so, I promise it's nothing personal.

Here's wishing I were you!

Conan @ ISEF

Check out the two videos of Conan O'Brien at the International Science and Engineering fair here.

For background, see here.

Betsy and Tanner!

What would a summer be like without one of my siblings getting married? Who knows! I can't remember such a time! About 6 months after Jamie and Michelle got hitched, Betsy and Tanner decided to follow suit. For those of you wondering why Tanner looks familiar, he's been the one showing up in all sorts of family photos over the last 3 years or so.

If your curious, those are all the nieces and nephews. Personally I love how Digham is playing with his tie, Jaxon and Kenzie are putting on their cheese smiles, and Jayden is having a blast. He was real excited when they finally gave him a bouquet to hold as well!


In fairness to my parents, I must say that if I had to choose who to hang out with, I'd pick the kids over the adults any day! If you're confused, see here.

With all these weddings (she was number 7), my parents are getting to be pros! They almost look like models now, getting the poses just right, smiling, etc. Here's dad with Betsy. For the ceremony Betsy wore my mom's wedding dress, so it was a bit sentimental I think.


They had quite the involved photographer, so here's Bryce doing his best to get a smile out of the kids. It was a little song and dance routine.


and here's an example of his creativity. I love Betsy's face.


Of course, no wedding would be complete without this classic. Doesn't Jamie just look like he wished he had a twin?


Last pic I took that day - here's the view from the temple. It was raining on and off and really made the mountains look impressive.


We did get to meet Tanner's family the day before the wedding. They invited us over for a bbq and pool party. They cooked up 5 different flavors of meat! All of them were great.


Why they were getting dinner ready, the ladies helped put together impressive assortments of candy dishes for the candy bar.


while the kids all played in the pool




That was one of the few nights there weren't any arguments when the kids were put to bed! Most of them were asleep before we even got home! For the final picture, here is Payton going to town on some home-made strawberry ice cream!

Love is in the air...

With the (slightly) warmer weather and spring in the air, I've been starting to attend lots of wedding receptions. I'm too slow to keep up with all of them but I thought this one deserved some documenting. I have known the family for years, practically lived with them my last semester of my undergrad and visited them last year in Ohio. I guess you could say we have a working relationship - whenever we meet up, I do some work! (my choice, not theirs).

I first met John when I was in Ohio last year. We didn't spend a whole lot of time together, but I did formally meet his entire family before her parents had! He's a good guy. The fun was getting introduced. His parents actually thought I was Cosette's dad, the single adults thought I was her cousin, and at the wedding I was introduced as her (adopted) brother. How's that?



It was great seeing the entire family again. Plenty of excitement and fun. If you ever got bored with the picture taking, you could always catch something entertaining going on just out of view. Here is Zack playing ninja tag.


It was also pleasing to see that Bryce and I aren't the only ones who have to do this pose. However, they won't have to do it nearly as many times ;-)


This is my favorite picture from that day. I'm so disappointed I cropped off Nico's head. I had to sneak it, so it'll have to do. It was a little chilly.


I actually was going to Wicked that afternoon so I missed the luncheon. However, I hung out with them right up until they went to it. We were playing Great Dalmuti (basically scum with more cards) and talked Cosette into joining us. She got creamed. It was like her mind was elsewhere...


And for the final picture, the only picture I took at the reception. Taking pictures is how I managed to avoid having to dance. It worked for about 1 minute!