man, I’m boring.

My toe is mostly healed! I can wear shoes that touch my toe! Of course, then I banged up my knee in some strange way that rules out wearing heels. And judo was canceled this week due to gym renovations, so I went to yoga instead.

yup, boring.

Magically, yesterday actually felt like a holiday. Got some good relaxing and reading and game playing and eating in. I’m going to make another round of cupcakes today, because I can. mmmm.

econ – I really should pull out the other computer and sort out that one to-do. Monday at latest.

studying – I’m doing much much better at working or tackling hard problems, but I’m still not doing a good job on volume of them. I think I may need to spread out which chapters I’m working on so getting it right is better than getting through.. hrm…

research – stumped, but reported in and haven’t gotten a flaming email back yet. Meeting Tuesday. I have a few more references I can look through this weekend if I’m just desperate to get something done. *goes and puts that other book on hold* (boo they don’t do holds on local books. I just have to a) remember I mean to get it and b) hope no one else wants it before Tuesday. Don’t they understand that I am easily distracted?)

1. This was a really entertaining book
2. The cheesecake recipe from it is WONDERFUL. It’s pretty easy for a cheesecake, esp if you remember that the food processor is the way to go to make the graham crackers into crumbs. The top layer smooths out any baking imperfections, and makes it gorgeous as well as yummy.

So I did econ during my tuesday afternoon school time, since my econ buddies are at a conference in Hawaii right now. I’ve got a little todo from them, but I’m in no hurry to get to it. They’ve got surf lessons (from firefighters!) so they don’t care.

I found code for the “normal” algorithm for my stat research. I really need to start playing with it, because I’m starting to get scared. It’s set up for 2 groups instead of 3, and it doesn’t look as easy to extend as I would like it to.

and I haven’t worked anything like enough problems in MGB. blah.

finished the granola. So one 9×13 pan = a little less than a month.

Judo is ok. Falls are getting better (FINALLY!) but I don’t really like our teacher’s teaching style. He occasionally hands us off to other people for a bit, and I seem to do better with anyone besides him. His explanations just don’t work for me. My toe is still not healed enough to wear shoes. (4 weeks)

I think I can do some of that coding for econ this morning. In fact, I think Friday mornings might be a good time to do it, period – since it’s not as daunting as everything else on my list.

I totally failed to have a schedule for working MGB problems, but having the book sitting there and aiming for 2-3 problems every day, plus a few more on weekends is working ok. And it’s what got me through Rudin for analysis.

So that just leaves the big meanie: research. I’m making progress, but it is slow slow slow. Partly because I need to understand the main model, partly because I need to get back up to speed in this programming language. I think so long as I don’t freak out, and keep making progress, everything will be ok.

One of the best and brightest guys in our dept quit at work – the real upside is that he was very blunt about what he didn’t like, so it is now officially part of our jobs to try to write papers, do research, and go to conferences. Yay legitimizing my urge to stay part of the scientific community.

I went to a Biostats conference, and now I’m a little more open to the ideal that Biostats might be interesting. I’m glad I went, but I wish I could have two extra days still.

Math research: code up some simple simulations
Econ research: code up some regressions
Comps studying: I’m behind my original expected plan, but when I’m working on it, it’s going pretty well.

In happier thoughts: Happy Anniversary to us! (Wed) We’re going to have some local adventures to celebrate.

Wednesday I made homemade granola, starting with this recipe cut in half. Here’s with the specific things I used:

GRANOLA

1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 cups oats
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup whole almonds
1 cup shredded coconut (I had sweetened already, so I used that. )
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup craisins

Instead of heating on the stove, I just measured the honey into a pyrex measuring cup, nuked for 30 seconds and then added the oil. (30 seconds may not be exact – try 10 second increments until the honey rolls in the cup like a liquid instead of it’s usual sticky self.)

Very yummy, and now I need more plain yogurt to eat it with. My only complaint is that it wasn’t as clumpy as I would like – clumpy makes it much easier to just sit with the bag in your lap and eat it. So I’m thinking about increasing the liquids to 1/3 c each next time. But this makes A LOT, so next time won’t be for awhile.

I got my first ever piece of paper that says I’m working on Doctoral Dissertation hours. gah.

Meeting KK and our sponsor again today. I’m not sure what I’m expected to have at this point – I don’t think either of them are really aware that I’m still working 20+ hour weeks.
For research:

1. Lit review – started this a little, but not finding anything definite yet.
2. start coding the base cases – got have the usual methods so I have an idea of what I have to beat.

And I’m coming down with/fighting something off – the dizzy spells are getting better, but I’m still unbearably cranky (poor N!) or absolutely beat down if I don’t get at least an hour’s nap each day.

Econ project is coming along a bit. I think I have one more round of clever coding before I can send it back to the guys. It’s just hard to say “Brain! must be very clever for next half hour” because brain is saying “But it’s naptime!”

Comps-wise, I’ve counted up weeks and allocated chapters of MGB. I’m going to try to work problems from 2 chapters/week. Like I did with Rudin, first round I read the book (in this case, that was last summer) and second round, I just work problems. Lots and lots of problems.

Meeting my advisor (KK)  at school today – and maybe the person whose problem we might be tackling.

So since I’ll be at school:

1. Do the end of semester desk clean and handout tidy
2. Start tackling the research problem, so if I hit an immediate brick wall, I can talk to KK.

And rest of the weekend:

1. Type up comps syllabus (found notes!)
2. Make comps study schedule for summer
3. Work on econ proj
4. Work on some combination of research and studying for comps.

Looks like I have enough stuff going on that I should probably pick a work day to knock off early and study on. And since I’m getting thesis hour credit for it this summer (unlike the last two summers where I just read entire textbooks cause I needed to study.)

1. Do any of you have pet insurance? Any tips/recommendations/etc?

2. What’s the most you’ve ever spent at the vet on a single incident? In a year?

I have no clue what a reasonable “Lifetime Spending Cap” or “Per Incident Amount” would be. So complicated!

edit: To be clear – I want to get pet insurance because I know we will be willing to spend an unreasonable to non-pet-owners amount of money if something should happen. And I think insurance will allow us to not have sticker shock at the moment the bill hits or they ask us whether they should do whatever – I’d like to take the immediate money fears out of the equation. I expect our spoiled butts to live loooong healthy lives – which means they’ll have crazy diseases towards the end that will cost a lot. But we’ll be ready.

Thanks so much for the comments. It really helps to get an idea of how much these things can run.