This Saturday I am heading out for a week in Northern Indiana. Just in time for the absolute craziness that will be the Indiana Democratic primary. Here's to hoping one of the candidates will make a stop in Goshen.
While trying to plan for an airplane flight at 6 months pregnant I am also finishing up my finals , and completing another large work deliverable. I miss working out. I miss sleep. I miss being in a good mood when Rick gets home. Here's to hoping a week of pampering by my family cures what ails me. You hear that family? Pampering ALL week. Uh Huh.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Congrats To Cousin Edward and Susannah And the Canary Project
Rick's cousin, Edward, and his wife Susannah were awarded fellowships at Harvard for the 2008 - 2009 academic year. Congratulations! They specifically won for their work on the Canary Project. It is definitely worth your time, energy, and possibly a financial donation to take a look at their website.
"The Canary Project produces visual media, events, and artwork that builds public understanding of human-induced climate change and energize commitment to solutions."
Note: they are also looking to sublet an apartment and a studio in NYC for the academic year. If you are interested this is the information I have (and I can give you Edward's email address if you email me):
* The apartment is a nice one-bedroom in the center of
Friday, April 18, 2008
Tourists
Rick and I naively thought we left really silly tourists behind in Vail. We did leave the Texas tourists who vacation at 9000ft, start drinking at lunch on the ski slopes, then have their very unsurprising heart attack and are sped down the mountain by ski patrol. We also left behind all the round-abouts (aka rotaries) and the tourist-induced near-misses and car accidents they cause. We now have a new variety that vacation at Colonial Williamsburg. I haven't quite nailed the stereotype yet, but Rick has experienced very un-Colorado tourist behavior.
Setup: Rick has meetings at various locations around the historic area, and rides his bike within the couple square mile area to these meetings. He wears suit pants and tie most days, and just ads a bike helmet for his intra-office commutes.
Behavior: He gets photographed by tourists on his short bike rides. Really. He was photographed twice on a 1 mile ride last week. These are tourists surrounded by an amazing recreation of Declaration of Independence American and they are taking pictures of Rick on his bicycle wearing a tie.
Setup: Rick has meetings at various locations around the historic area, and rides his bike within the couple square mile area to these meetings. He wears suit pants and tie most days, and just ads a bike helmet for his intra-office commutes.
Behavior: He gets photographed by tourists on his short bike rides. Really. He was photographed twice on a 1 mile ride last week. These are tourists surrounded by an amazing recreation of Declaration of Independence American and they are taking pictures of Rick on his bicycle wearing a tie.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Rambo and Sad Dog
I had never seen Rambo: First Blood until yesterday. What a movie. I loved almost every second of it, and the final scene, regardless of the mention of fictional spitting, is moving, and made me tear-up a bit. I know. I know. But I am pregnant. Certainly made me even more aware of my bias when I see young men in uniform, and we have a lot of them in my area. Was very interesting that the movie simultaneously asked me to question the government training men into killers, and yet also made me fiercely cheer-on the PTSDing John Rambo. Hell, I even felt patriotic, which says something in these times. Does anyone remember David Caruso in this: Deputy Mitch. Might be his first portrayal of a cop. And as always Brian Dennehy makes an awesome antagonist.
Also I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the first Rambo and the first Predator movies. Arnie and Stallone are so similar, and yet could you imagine either of these movies made with the other one in the starring role. Yikes: John Rambo would have been named Johann Schmidt. The movie would have been Schmidt: First Blut.
On a sadder note my dog seems to be sick, or depressed, or something. She was limping around yesterday. And today she followed me from room to room, ALL day. Now she is hiding under Rick's desk. Not sure what is up, and we may need a vet appointment if this continues another day. We have been doing some status reduction training with her in preparation for the baby. She has had her doggie bed moved out bedroom, to the hallway, and a week ago it was placed all the way downstairs. I wonder if her symptoms are at all attention getting, or whether there really is something wrong.
Also I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the first Rambo and the first Predator movies. Arnie and Stallone are so similar, and yet could you imagine either of these movies made with the other one in the starring role. Yikes: John Rambo would have been named Johann Schmidt. The movie would have been Schmidt: First Blut.
On a sadder note my dog seems to be sick, or depressed, or something. She was limping around yesterday. And today she followed me from room to room, ALL day. Now she is hiding under Rick's desk. Not sure what is up, and we may need a vet appointment if this continues another day. We have been doing some status reduction training with her in preparation for the baby. She has had her doggie bed moved out bedroom, to the hallway, and a week ago it was placed all the way downstairs. I wonder if her symptoms are at all attention getting, or whether there really is something wrong.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Sucessful 20 Weeks
Had the 20 week ultrasound yesterday and all looks well from what the doctor could see. All pieces that should be there are there, and it the correct number. No extra pieces were seen. Yay! Go little Clementine! Here I must admit that my inside-head voice has nicknamed the fetus "my little parasite". This thought is thunk with much kindness.
The 20 week appointment is a good milestone to hit. I actually look pregnant in clothing instead of just chunky. And I feel the "quickening", such a strange term, aka fluttering and flipping in my belly.
So we don't know gender. The sonographer wrote it down and I can always call and ask if I suddenly get the desire. But for now we don't know. During the ultrasound Rick and I kept our eyes open. I thought I saw a penis, Rick thought he saw a vagina. I wonder how Freud would rate the ultrasound as a psych projection tool?
I also came to the appointment with my list of questions for the doctor. One of which was about any additional protective equipment I could use for my A&P class this summer. My doctor responded with "You mean equipment to protect you from a substance that produces 400 gram tumors on 200 gram mice?" Hmm... so I re-thought my summer schedule. And now instead of one A&P class/lab, I am now enrolled in two silly general education classes. Send me happy thoughts that I won't lose my mind taking Medical Terminology and Speech. Anyone think I can get out of speech with a short talk on how I have presented at technical conferences, and was a technical trainer within my last company? Fingers crossed.
The 20 week appointment is a good milestone to hit. I actually look pregnant in clothing instead of just chunky. And I feel the "quickening", such a strange term, aka fluttering and flipping in my belly.
So we don't know gender. The sonographer wrote it down and I can always call and ask if I suddenly get the desire. But for now we don't know. During the ultrasound Rick and I kept our eyes open. I thought I saw a penis, Rick thought he saw a vagina. I wonder how Freud would rate the ultrasound as a psych projection tool?
I also came to the appointment with my list of questions for the doctor. One of which was about any additional protective equipment I could use for my A&P class this summer. My doctor responded with "You mean equipment to protect you from a substance that produces 400 gram tumors on 200 gram mice?" Hmm... so I re-thought my summer schedule. And now instead of one A&P class/lab, I am now enrolled in two silly general education classes. Send me happy thoughts that I won't lose my mind taking Medical Terminology and Speech. Anyone think I can get out of speech with a short talk on how I have presented at technical conferences, and was a technical trainer within my last company? Fingers crossed.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
New CPR Standards and Other Health Care News
You may have already heard but I wanted to again proselytize the new American Heart Association CPR standard for bystander CPR. The new standard is for hands-only CPR for adults who experienced cardiac compromise. This is a great change for several reasons:
1) Works just as well for adults in cardiac compromise (this is the best reason).
2) Easier to remember. No longer do you need to remember 30:1 or 20:2 chest compression to breath ratios.
3) Protects good Samaritans from communicable diseases. No longer do you need to put your mouth over someone else's mouth. You don't know where that mouth has been. Stay away. Hepatitis is very scary and very prevalent.
Now, after I said that I also want to give a few caveats:
1) Go to a community CPR training class.You can learn two person CPR, CPR for children and infants, and become more comfortable with the whole idea. To find a class near you click here and use the "Find A Class" tool.
2) If you are alone and witness someone having a cardiac event, call 911 first. If there is someone else, one of you call 911, the other start chest compressions.
3) Hands-only is for adults. An adult is anyone showing signs of puberty. Children are not just little adults. They are more likely to have experienced respiratory failure, which means mouth-to-mouth is the most important. Children's lungs are smaller than adults, thus you need to push less air. But they breath more times per minute. This is why the class is good. It gets more complicated for children, and I would imagine the situation would be even more stressful.
4) Hands-only is only for cardiac events. If you pull someone from water you want to do both chest and mouth-to-mouth. The chest compressions can act as a Heimlich maneuver, the mouth-to-mouth will get air to the lungs.
5) Get an AED if one is available! CPR will never bring someone back on its own no matter what you have seen in stupid movies. If the heart does not have its own electrical impulse then CPR cannot create one. You need an AED to do that.
Ah... now I feel better.
I had to order a surprising amount of personal protective gear this morning for my summer class. I am taking Anatomy and Physiology I this summer, and the lab uses formaldehyde, which is nasty to fetuses. So, I ordered an awesome face mask (seen here), and some basic nitryl disposable gloves. I will look so rad!
1) Works just as well for adults in cardiac compromise (this is the best reason).
2) Easier to remember. No longer do you need to remember 30:1 or 20:2 chest compression to breath ratios.
3) Protects good Samaritans from communicable diseases. No longer do you need to put your mouth over someone else's mouth. You don't know where that mouth has been. Stay away. Hepatitis is very scary and very prevalent.
Now, after I said that I also want to give a few caveats:
1) Go to a community CPR training class.You can learn two person CPR, CPR for children and infants, and become more comfortable with the whole idea. To find a class near you click here and use the "Find A Class" tool.
2) If you are alone and witness someone having a cardiac event, call 911 first. If there is someone else, one of you call 911, the other start chest compressions.
3) Hands-only is for adults. An adult is anyone showing signs of puberty. Children are not just little adults. They are more likely to have experienced respiratory failure, which means mouth-to-mouth is the most important. Children's lungs are smaller than adults, thus you need to push less air. But they breath more times per minute. This is why the class is good. It gets more complicated for children, and I would imagine the situation would be even more stressful.
4) Hands-only is only for cardiac events. If you pull someone from water you want to do both chest and mouth-to-mouth. The chest compressions can act as a Heimlich maneuver, the mouth-to-mouth will get air to the lungs.
5) Get an AED if one is available! CPR will never bring someone back on its own no matter what you have seen in stupid movies. If the heart does not have its own electrical impulse then CPR cannot create one. You need an AED to do that.
Ah... now I feel better.I had to order a surprising amount of personal protective gear this morning for my summer class. I am taking Anatomy and Physiology I this summer, and the lab uses formaldehyde, which is nasty to fetuses. So, I ordered an awesome face mask (seen here), and some basic nitryl disposable gloves. I will look so rad!
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