How Kaity spends her sultry summer evenings once a week:
We were across the parking lot, so you can’t see her, but the sound is pretty good.
July 3rd, 2009 § 0
How Kaity spends her sultry summer evenings once a week:
We were across the parking lot, so you can’t see her, but the sound is pretty good.
June 30th, 2009 § 0
In my Social Studies class everyone was assigned a first grade buddy from one of the local elementary schools. The first letter I ever got from my buddy was adorable. They were supposed to describe themselves. She mentioned that she had a little brother, liked to do karate (which I read as decorate) and that her name was Katie.

I am a frst gradr. I have one braothr. I like to play socr. But most of all I like to do crote.
On every letter she always drew pictures. On the first letter she drew a bunch of people that were doing karate. The last letter that she sent to me included the information that she was going to go to Disney World this summer and that it was going to be her first plane ride.

I am going to have so much fun this summer. I am going to disney world this summer and this will be my first plane ride. It will be fun.
At the end of the year, we went on a special surprise field trip to visit them. The kids were in gym when we got there, so we sat at their desks and waited for them to come back to class. They were very excited to see us, and Katie kept hugging me.

Kaity and Katie
I think that she was trying to explain something to me.

Kaity and Katie drawing on the sidewalk.
This was one of my favorite things about 9th grade social studies.
June 29th, 2009 § 0
My baby turned 15 today.

Kaity, November 1997
She had her toes painted, after a full spa pedicure including an hour in a massage chair.

Purple toes
She had her hands basted, as part of a manicure.

Soft hands, coming up!
We had drunken pork chops (brined in burbon) for dinner, along with artichokes and mashed potatoes, at her request.

Yummy
And then it was off to Sylas and Maddy’s for a 5 flavor sampler, with gummy bears, for dessert.

Chocolate, Cookies & Cream, Chocolate Chip, Reese's, and Mint Chip Ice Creams
Happy Birthday, baby!
June 29th, 2009 § 0
At Central, there’s a tradition of a student conceived and written production for the Spring Play. This year, Kaity spent many after school hours helping to write it, and her scene was the big finale (which we didn’t get on tape unfortunately, because there was no power to the balcony that night and the camcorder ran out of battery about halfway through). She does appear in other scenes though, as Valery, a preppy little rich girl who has a change of heart. Her work on the Spring Play is one of the reasons she was given the Chuck Holley Memorial Theatre Award for outstanding drama student.

Kaity receiving the Holley Theatre Award
In this first scene, taken from It’s the Economy, Stupid, Valery is a student in Mrs. (B)Loomis’ English class. Based on Kaity’s actual English teacher, most of the laughter you hear is from people in the audience who know her. She’s an institution at Central, and an incorrigible flirt (or possibly she just enjoys giving Brandon crap). The old gym is named after her (she taught gym before teaching English), and all of the kids just love her. Mrs. Loomis is one of the reasons Kaity was sad to leave junior high.
As always, you’ll need QuickTime to view the clip.
June 28th, 2009 § 0
T-minus 2 weeks…. The baby has dropped, judging by the shape of my belly and the fact that it is now easier to breathe, but less comfortable to sit.

38 weeks
It feels like I could balance a stack of books on top of it and not have to worry about them falling off. Not much going on otherwise though. The midwife says I have some time left, which is good. Brandon has a big project at work that they’re rolling out over the holiday weekend (and how did July 4th get here already?!?), so I “have to make it to the due date.” Tell that to the baby.
June 27th, 2009 § 1
Aren’t weekends supposed to be relaxing? The last few months, our weekends have been consumed by playing catch up on all the things we missed doing during the week. Take today, for instance. We started the morning at the Farmer’s Market. There were:

Ponies

Puppies
and if I didn’t know better, I would swear Spencer and Xavier had made a trip to Lawrence this weekend.

The older one is wearing tie-dye, and the little one is wearing orange galoshes, just like Kaity's two favorite boys.
A couple of appointments later, and we were at Images, so Kaity could get her hair cut for her birthday.

The aftermath

The new do
Then it was time for bowling and pizza with 5 of her closest friends.
And finally, a sleepover with her two oldest friends, Raven and Danielle. They were up until 3am watching:
June 26th, 2009 § 0
Kaity’s second square for Grandma’s Blanket is the Instant Plaid from Barbara Walker’s Learn-To-Knit-Afghan Book.

Instant Plaid
She’s really getting the hang of stranded knitting.
Technical specs:
Other cool knitting:

knit-a-blog
Earlier this month, Wired featured a story on Geek Art, with particular reference to the knit-a-blog, a project started in 2005 which:
put a blog at the center of its challenge. Each of the 20 or so participants had to create a knitted patch and then hand it over to the next participant. The receiver of the patch would have to photograph it and upload it to a blog called glittyknittykitty, where its progress would be tracked…The knit-a-blogathon also borrowed from the principles of open source programming. Participants could add, embellish or change patterns, but they had to build on the work of previous knitters. They also could not remove or alter any work already done. All the work would be the public domain and participants would have to agree to freely contribute in terms of time, ideas and yarn.
Open source knitting – awesome!
–Image credit: BildMuseet
June 25th, 2009 § 0
Little Wolf’s Book of Badness was great. It was about a little wolf who was playing a trick on his parents and he was being good so they would say, “Oh my goodness, Little Wolf is being good!” Instead they sent Little Wolf to Cunning College for Brute Beasts to see Uncle Big Bad and live with him until Little Wolf got his bad badge.
– written by Hannah
June 25th, 2009 § 0
…now that I’m officially a doctor.

Current and former members of the LBA in attendance at the presentation of the Higuchi Research Achievement Award to Dr. Crawford in 2006
From the left, front row, we have Rohina (PhD 2007), Anne, Dr. Crawford, Kristie, Geetha, Chris, and Norberto. Back row: Jay (defending his dissertation on July 16), me (PhD #30), and Marion. Not pictured are our two most recent graduates:

Phil & Mark - Dr. Crawford's 28th and 29th PhDs - Spring 2009
What Kaity will miss most, now that I’m graduating:

Primate fossils - the big one on the bottom is a cast of a gorilla skull

Neandertal fossil casts
I had to take her into the teaching lab before I turned in my keys, so she could say goodbye to the fossils.
–
Image credits: Higuchi Award photo – LBA website, recent Docs – Mark’s Facebook profile