Progress and our Miniature Boy

As soon as Seth conquered the complications of crawling (i.e. you can't move both legs at the same time and expect to get anywhere), it seems he has been developing at lightning speed. He soon thereafter taught himself to stand up on stuff (then he started falling down and bonking his head), and then to get down from standing up without bonking his head. He can crawl over stuff too (i.e. pillows, me, etc.), so barriers have to be a little more creative. He also likes to mimic now, so he'll clap his hands if you do, or shake his head "no" if you do. His latest trick is peek-a-boo. I've been playing it with him for months, and he loves it. This week he started playing it with me--ducking his head behind the couch and then popping back up and laughing his head off. The kid is hilarious, and a ton of fun. I think he'll be walking soon, although Lindsay's not so sure. We actually made an over-under bet: if he walks before the Super Bowl (first week of February for all those who are not inclined to care about such events) then I don't have to do the dishes for a week without feeling guilty. If it's after the Super-Bowl, then I have to do the dishes three times by myself in a week no matter how much studying I have to do, and she doesn't have to feel guilty about it. (We both hate dishes, and she usually does them because I pretend I'm too busy learning about molecules and diseases so I can cure the world of all it's infirmities). Seth already walks pretty well with us holding his hands, and he does some cruising, so I think my chances are good. I wonder what he would think if he knew his own mother was betting against him. Oh ya, he also empties the dishwasher now.

I got tagged too (see post from 12.12.07)

Things I'm passionate about:
1. Lo and Seth
2. Neuroscience
3. Medicine
4. Technology
5. Spirituality
6. Photography
5. Helping people who aren't as fortunate as I am
6. Being passionate
7. Baseball
8. Guitar/Music

Books I've read recently/am reading right now:
Mountains Beyond Mountains - Tracy Kidder
God's Bits of Wood - Ousmane Sembène
A Lesson Before Dying - Ernest Gaines
Hocus Pocus - Kurt Vonnegut (read it again--one of my favorites)
Beasts of No Nation - Uzodinma Iweala
The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness - Antonio Damasio
Immunobiology - C. Janeway
Respiratory Physiology - John West

Things I often say:
1. Screw you for judging me
2. That's so like you
3. That's what she said
4. So's your face
5. Lindsay, you got the body to back it up...
6. But it's my special day!
7. Wait for it...wait for it... (while waiting for the chorus of a song before Lindsay changes it)

Things I want to do before I die:
1. See my kids grow up (assuming I'll have more than one)
2. Feel like I contributed to improving international and domestic poverty and lack of quality health care (i.e. medically treat lots of people whether they can pay or not)
3. Live in Africa again
4. Travel to India, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Russia, Italy, Czech Republic, Norway, Turkey, Egypt, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, Morocco, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, Peru, Brazil, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Alaska, Galapogos Islands, Fiji, Tahiti, etc, etc.
5. Live in France and Switzerland again
6. Skydive
7. Drive a car over 200 mph (presumably on a race track; this could actually be the last thing I do before I die)
8. Fly a plane

Songs I could listen to over and over (this one is easy):
1. Since I've Been Loving You - Led Zeppelin
2. La Cienega Just Smiled - Ryan Adams
3. When the Stars Go Blue - Ryan Adams
4. One - U2
5. Hey Jude - The Beatles
6. Let Down - Radiohead
7. 4 + 20 - Stephen Stills
8. Back in Black - AC/DC
9. Little Wing - Stevie Ray Vaughn
10. Whipping Post - Allman Brothers Band
11. Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan
12. Clocks - Coldplay
13. I Will Follow You into the Dark - Death Cab For Cutie
14. The Final Countdown - Europe
15. Gimme Some Lovin' - G. Love & Special Sauce
16. Cherry Red Wine - Johnny Lang
17. Amsterdam - Guster
18. Over the Hills and Far Away - Led Zeppelin
19. come to think of it, anything by Led Zeppelin
20. You Belong to Me - Jason Wade
21. Long Ride Home - Patty Griffin
many, many more....

Things that attract me to friends:
humor, love of sports, love of music, silly, mature, real (i.e. not fake), sensitive, generous, kind, philosophical, adventurous, critical, and ridiculously good looking

Random things about me:
1. I can't sit in a restaurant with my back to the door.
2. I severed my right pinkie finger when I was 10. It was reattached in a major reconstructive surgery. It's a little shorter than the other one and doesn't have 100% feeling, but it works pretty regular.
3. I lived in Namibia in the summer of 2004 and hitch-hiked my way around 3 countries in Southern Africa.
4. I clip my toenails 1-2 times a week.
5. I'm allergic to most things that grow.
6. I can tell you all of the hitting statistics of Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell from the 1989 San Francisco Giants season.
7. I don't love fruit, but my favorite is pear.

Scared to travel

They say that love for your own child is unconditional. I think this is for the most part, true. However, there are moments when this statement is challenged. For example, I have never loved my son less than when we were driving from San Diego to the Bay area to visit the fam for Christmas time fun (I still loved him, just not as much as usual). Apparently Seth didn't understand that fun was in store, because he decided to scream for about 4 of the 8 hours it took us to arrive, including a particularly rough 2 and a half hour stretch after the Grapevine. Our car is not huge--his face was perhaps 2 feet from mine, and there were moments at which I longed for death. It made me think about how scared I am to fly anywhere with him and be that guy with the loud kids on an airplane. I guess we'll just stay put for a while and save up to go on vacation 10 years from now when I have a real job. This event also reminded me of a funny french commercial a friend showed me a while back.

(note: I sometimes use sarcasm in an attempt at humor, so please don't think I don't love my kid.)
The next post will likely explain why it's actually worth it to have kids.

Double Tagged

A couple weeks ago I got "tagged" twice, which apparently is a phenomenon floating around the blog world where you answer a set of questions about yourself and then name several blog friends at the end who you'd like to answer those same questions. Well, I got tagged with a "6 facts about yourself", as well as a more detailed set of questions, so I guess I'll just put some hybrid of the two, or whatever I feel like.
Things I'm passionate about:
1. Aaron.
2. Seth.
3. Giving patients a good operating room experience.
4. Cooking
5. Tonsil rock removal (yuck!)
6. Understanding people/ trying to not be self centered
7. Save Darfur
8. Nothing should be heavily spiced with cloves or anise
Books I've read recently/reading right now:
Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines
Things I often say:
1. "Who fed this boy a slice of crazy pie?"
2."That sounds like you."
3."I forgot to tell you, Seth, you're actually not allowed to do that. So stop." (He gets into everything now that he crawls)
4. "fluffy" It's probably my favorite word. I use it all the time. Examples: "Will you change Seth's fluffy? (that means a fat diaper full of pee), "My teeth feel fluffy, I need to brush them."
5. "I'm sick of these dishes. Can we blow up the kitchen and start over?"
6. "You're delicious."
7. "That's what I call a fuss boy."
8. "Who pulled the pork?"
9. "I'm sick of you."
10. "Those bastard people" (everytime a Walmart commercial comes on)
11. "The government bought this for me so I could make milk for Seth." (we get groceries from the WIC program)
12. "I'm junked" (tired), or "this baby's junked"
Things I want to do before I die:
1. Live to be 100
2. Own a cello and learn to play it (When I was 27 I rented one and took lessons for over a year. It's an expensive hobby that I miss)
3. Go on surgery missions to third world countries
4. Become an awesome cook
5. Have a garden and make it thrive
6. Travel to India, New Zealand, Thailand, see more of Africa (the list goes on)
Songs/albums I could listen to over and over:
I love music and if I could remember who sings what and what's on what album, I'd probably fill this in. (Aaron makes fun of me for this)
Things that attract me to friends:
1. not mean
2. not dumb
3. find the same things funny/laugh at my lame jokes
4. will listen to my dreams (i don't mean hopes and aspirations, although that's nice too)
5. enthusiasm for fresh produce (this i mention mostly for my friend marcus with whom i could discuss fruits and vegetables for hours. aaron usually rolls his eyes at us)
6. generous (i'm not looking for friends to give me lots of stuff, i just really enjoy people who have this characteristic)
Random things about me:
1. I love to throw things/give things away. I hate keeping extra stuff around. Sometimes I go a little overboard I guess. Aaron is far more sentimental than me (and more welcoming of clutter). He recently rescued a pair of shoes, a baking dish, and my high school diploma from the trash.
2. It's embarrassing, but I like watching "Kitchen Nightmares" with Chef Gordon Ramsay. I'm ashamed that I've gotten hooked into a reality tv show, especially one with the typical angry British guy formula. Every episode is virtually the same. Half of it is bleeped out because of Ramsay's foul mouth. He's over-the-top mean and nasty, makes the owner look like an idiot, exposes their fridge full of moldy food, and everything is transformed and happy in the end. It's just so satisfying.
3. I love telling stories (mostly my own experiences), and have loved it ever since I could learn to talk, according to my Mom. I guess I'm a bit like my Dad, in that once I've worded a story a certain way, I often tell it the same way on every subsequent occasion. My poor husband. I'm sure once we're married for 37 years like my parents, it'll get pretty old. Everyone in our family can tell my Dad's tale of taking a Spanish pronunciation class, which always ends with "and guess who got the only A in the class?" Hopefully my stories are a little better than that.
Who Am I Tagging?
Aaron, Kelsey and Justin, Allison (I don't know a whole lot of blog people)

Almost Festivus

This will brighten your day. It takes a bit to load, but i guarantee a smile. Click on the links.

Holiday Cheer
Bah Humbug

Locomotion

Seth finally taught himself to crawl. He also still scoots around on his back so he can look you in the eye while getting from point A to B.

Thanksgiving, but don't mention the turkey

Here's a photo of our Thanksgiving crowd (minus Aaron, at his usual place behind the camera). Aaron's medical school pal, Jason, and his girlfriend Olivia came. Aaron's parents, his brother Jared, and honorary sister Vania, were here for the weekend. I guess this was the first time my own kitchen hosted such a feast. With one oven, I don't know how people get the meal served all hot at the same time. We were fairly close to accomplishing that feat, but we had a bit of a turkey mishap that Aaron would appreciate me not bringing up. Let's just say Aaron was incredibly excited to cook a perfect bird (like he did last Christmas) but our ghetto oven didn't deliver. Poor Aaron. There was plenty of delicious food though, and the two types of stuffing we made still tasted good for lunch today, 5 days later.




The night after Thanksgiving, we went to Balboa Park with Aaron's family. From there, Rich and Jeannine (his parents) planned to take Seth home and babysit him for the evening/put him to bed, so Aaron and I could go on a date (hooray!). We went to The Darjeeling Limited, a movie we've wanted to see for a while. Halfway through the movie, we got a text message with a picture from Rich of the adjacent photo, with Seth on Santa's lap. It said "locked out and doing fine". It's horrifying to realize you've locked out your babysitters. Rich and Jeannine are really laid back and didn't fret, just showed Seth the time of his life. He stayed up quite late and loved it. Aaron and I couldn't really enjoy the last half of the movie, but we're still grateful for our half-date.

Kristen, Gabriella, Sofia, and Fetus Brighten up San Diego

A visit from my friend, Kristen, was just what I needed. It was wonderful to have her and her girls stay with us. We've been best of friends for the last 16 years and stayed close through a lot of ups and downs in life. I don't know how I would have survived Oak Ridge High without her. While the other kids were passing gossipy notes in class, we'd exchange comic strip drawings of sea cows, a hovering poodle psycho-therapist (too much to explain), and marshmallow jet-puff machinery. We've always understood each other like nobody else quite could. It was great to get together as fellow-moms for the first time and bask in the joys of offspring (and maybe a couple of the woes). Kristen is beautiful to begin with, but her 6 month pregnant belly is glorious. I was reflecting on my pregnancy days and how people tended to gaze at me with this look on their face like "you sweet thing", as if I was the Virgin Mary and could do no wrong. I asked Kristen if she gets those looks. She said that kind of reverence for pregnancy gets a little lost when you're toting two kids along already, so most people look at you like you're crazy instead. (Her 2 year old, Gabriella, referring to the baby as "Mr. Moroni" doesn't help the crazy stereotypes either. She came up with that herself by the way). Oh well. During their visit, Seth discovered his natural affinity for Ratatouille, one of the few foods he's expressed much interest in. (I'm not all that surprised--my breastmilk is probably pretty garlicky). Anyway, it really confused little Sofia, who only knows Ratatouille as a Pixar movie about a rat. Everytime we'd say the word, she'd beg to watch it. I'd keep forgetting, and throw around the term, somewhat torturing Sofia. Anyway, we had a great time visiting together. I only hope I can make it out to Tucson to meet the new baby before Kristen and Richard uproot to Texas this summer.

Sand is grainy

Seth has been to the beach may times, but this week, for the first time, we let him play at the beach (instead of just holding him while we take a walk). As a consequence, he had his first taste of sand. Surprisingly, he didn't think it was that good. (A bit grainy). I wish i had a picture of him with sand all over his mouth, and the look on his face as he tried to chew it. It was cool to see how fascinated he was by this new tactile experience. He kept grabbing handfuls and letting it fall through his fingers. I could just see the dendrites in his little brain developing. It was fun.

Mountain Man Terrorizes Baby Seth

The bearded man in this photo walked into our apartment last week, without knocking, approached Seth, who was on the floor calmly perusing our DVD collection, and terrified him into a screaming fit. The poor little sweety must not have recognized him as our friend Garret, whom he used to know as a newborn. Garret spent the past 6 months hiking the Continental Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada and back again, and continues to flaunt his rugged appearance like a status symbol. During his stay here, Aaron got out the clippers to give himself a haircut and invited Garret to clean up his look and join society again, but he was recalcitrant (not surprising). Anyway, it was great fun having our good old Berkeley pals, Marcus and Garret, stay with us a couple days. Seth even warmed up to Garret a little. While he was holding him, Seth pulled Garret's nasty, sweat-marinated ball cap off his head and started gnawing on it. Garret didn't so much mind, but warned Seth that it was more of a salt-lick than a hat. As for Marcus, he kindly gave us a gift of Halloween trash he picked up outside. It was a piece of a talking balloon, that when you hit it, makes scary Halloween sounds like howling and cackling. Aaron planted it in our bed while I was sleeping, and scared the bejeezers out of me when I rolled over onto it. Then when this thing finally made it to the trash a couple days later, it decided to haunt me again. I had thrown it in Seth's diaper pail, and as I was carrying this bag of poo diapers out to the dumpster, it burst open, spilling all over the ground, to the soundtrack of witch cackles, as if to say--Happy Halloween, here's your poo.

A tooth

This week Seth's first tooth made it's way through his gums. He doesn't think it's that great of an accomplishment--in fact, he's not too happy about it at all. Sleep is a bit of a luxury these days.

"No, It Can't Be!"--"What Is It?"--"It Can't be!" --"What Did You Do Ray?"

*note: I take no responsibility for the language of actors in this clip.

For the last few weeks Lindsay has been working on her first major sewing project. Up until this point, she hadn't sewed anything but a couple square pillows . With Halloween approaching, she decided that no child of hers was going to go costume-less, even if her husband is a Halloween party-pooper. If you know Lindsay, you know she's never done anything half-way in her life, so she went all out. The result is a miniature Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (i.e., the incarnation of Gozer the Destroyer). The costume was the hit of the Ward Halloween Party. Everyone was saying "where did you buy that costume?" When I said, "Lindsay made it," everyone was very impressed and assumed she had been sewing her whole life. Ha! She is amazing...even Peter Vankman would be proud. As Egon says, the sight of this monster "terrifies me beyond the capacity for rational thought."

I hope this video puts you in the Halloween mood.

Halloween Couture

My love for Halloween costumes was motivation enough to inspire me to get out the manual for the sewing machine my mom bought me two Christmases ago, and learn how to use it. I'm such a homemaker. Since I work full-time at home now, I sometimes like to pretend that the hours I put in are still compensated with the same hourly wages I made in the operating room. (I should start turning in timecards to Aaron). With that in mind, the costume I sewed for Seth should cost around $1000. That's quite a designer piece of art. Unfortunately, the market for quick-moving surgical nurses is much greater than the market for incredibly inefficient baby costume seamstresses. Oh well, getting paid for the things I do in units of love is pretty great. I really wanted to dress up as Gozer (the chick with the flat top in the spandex suit), and assemble a ghostbuster suit for Aaron, but then I remembered we don't really have anywhere to go for Halloween. Plus, I'm already on costume overtime.

We didn't start the fire

If you've been following the news at all, you might have noticed that many neighborhoods in the San Diego area are burning down, and the wind keeps blowing. The smoke is pretty bad, classes at UCSD are cancelled, and all we can really do is sit in our apartment with the windows shut. We're just thankful we don't have to evacuate...yet (the closest fires are 5-10 miles away). I've got a lump in my throat all day watching the people on the news who've lost their homes, and just hope our friend Jane and her family won't be among them (the fire's creeping really close to them). As for our little family, it's getting stuffy in this apartment and it's tough to concentrate on anything (aaron's having a hard time studying) because it feels a little like the world's coming to an end outside our door (we're repenting just in case). We're glad my brother Jeff emailed us a link to a fun Halloween game, it kept Aaron and I entertained for a good hour. I guess I'll try to go back to my costume-making. Seth's going to be the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man for Halloween. And yes, if we had to evacuate, I'd definitely grab the costume. I just couldn't bear to see it on the news in a pile of ashes, looking like a toasted marshmallow.
This is the smoky view from our apartment balcony. (It's much spookier in person)

Tired Boy = Goofy Boy

When Seth gets a little tired, he gets goofy. This video is an example of his hystericalness.

Before my parents went home up north on tuesday, we visited the La Jolla Cove. It was a typical beautiful day in San Diego. We certainly can't complain about the area, and we're starting to get used to it. Here are some pics of our boy.

The Rutman's are in a new hutch

Last weekend was crazy. We moved again. Yup, only been in San Diego a month and a half and we already moved. Nothing was wrong with the last apartment--in fact, it had more amenities than the one we've moved to. But we were finally offered a place in the married student housing complex, which is a whole lot cheaper. So here we are. The weekend was a crazy one, with both mine and Lindsay's parents visiting to help us move and take care of Seth in the meantime. Not to mention I had a big test in immunology on tuesday that I was freakin out about--so we really couldn't have done it without them, they really saved us. Our new place might not be quite as nice as the last one, but it is a bit bigger, and at this point I'll take big over nice. Lindsay already refers to the apartment complex (in a somewhat derogatory manner) as the rabbit hutches, apparently with reference to the fact that everyone seems to have kids and it reminds her of Provo.

Thank You Henry Heimlich

Dr. Heimlich and myself rescued my dad from a wayward fruit. Now that a few days have passed, it's okay to be facetious about a strawberry that almost took my dear dad to the other side (it really was a scary experience). We were eating breakfast the first morning of my parents' visit to San Diego, when he got a horrible look on his face as he was choking. I did the Heimlich maneuver and it dislodged the food enough to get some air moving around it, but it still didn't pop out. He kept struggling to breathe for a good minute, as his airway was still pretty blocked, but the berry eventually found its way to his esophagus (or made a home in his lung, and he'll be getting strawberry pneumonia this week--yummy). Anyway, the Heimlich maneuver is no joke. It worked wonderfully. I wish I could come up with a life saving maneuver so that people around the world would say--Yeah, I wouldn't be here today if my friend hadn't performed the Rutman on me.

A House of Disrepair

I had no idea so much stuff in our house needed fixing, but if I spent as much time rolling around on the floor, like Seth, maybe I'd discover these things too. I frequently find him under the coffee table, our bed, or his swing--messing around with it, his feet poking out like a mechanic under a car. It looks like he's doing repairs on them. I stand by sometimes, to see if he needs a wrench or anything. He's pretty self sufficient though. Not being able to talk will do that I guess. When we took him to our friend Jane's house, he immediately went to work on their coffee table too, and the Prince family seemed delighted. We're happy to loan out our baby boy if your furniture needs tune ups.

Seth and the Monkeys

So technically I have hundreds of pages of immunology and biochemistry I should be reading, studying, and memorizing--instead, I went to the zoo to see the animals. That's right, Lindsay, Seth, and I went to the zoo. I was feeling a bit guilty that I haven't been able to do much with them over the past month--a feeling I'm going to be very well acquainted with I think--so I took an afternoon off so we could check out some critters. I've heard that the San Diego zoo is supposed to be pretty great so we gave it a shot. Plus, we got some free passes from our friend Jane's sister-they expire in a few day's, so it was now or never.
It was definitely the best zoo I've been to (out of only three--San Francisco, Oakland, and now San Diego). In addition to the standard lions, tigers, and bears, I learned of the existence of a couple animals that had never been brought to my attention, such as the okapi and japanese serow. Good times!
My favorite exhibit was the orangutans. I liked this guy, who seemed to be nothing more than an orangutan suit crumpled up in the corner. I don't know, maybe that's what the zookeeper puts on when he wants to go out there and hang out with the monkeys. But then the furball started moving. Weirdest orangutan I ever saw.

Here are some more animal pics.

I still think Seth was the cutest monkey at the zoo. There are new pics of him at the top right. (Seth Pics).

Seth Neil makes my heart sing

Ever since our sweety's arrival, I've found myself singing a lot. I guess Seth's charms have inspired a hidden gift I have for composing annoying, simple-minded music. It started with the first morning I woke up (several months ago) and realized he had slept an entire 8 hours that night. I picked him up and the song "It's a Beautiful Day to be Seth's Mom" was born. I had it stuck in my head for several days. The problem with that song, as well as every other one I've created, is that it's incredibly short, and thus repetitive, as I have to sing it several times when I'm interested in singing for longer than 20-30 seconds. The lyrics are based on simple rhymes, many of which revolve around "boy" rhyming with "joy". One of my classics, for example, is entitled "Have You Ever Considered the Joy that Stems from One Small Boy?" Some other hits include "What Do Think About the Love in Our Family?" and (when Seth's in a crazy mood) "He's the Star of the Crazy Show, the Cutest Boy that I Know". Since we spend a decent amount of time in the kitchen, some food-centered songs like "Who Pulled the Pork?" have been conceived as well. I fell a little more in love with Aaron a couple days ago when I overheard HIM singing "Who Pulled the Pork?" to Seth. It reaffirmed that it's catchiness was not just in my head. Anyway, baby Seth is a wonderful audience to sing to. He smiles huge and makes me feel like a star. However, considering the actual musical genius that exists in Aaron's family (Seth Neil's namesake, Uncle Neil) he might have inherited some real talent and already recognizes my inadequacies, in which case he's sure a sweety about it anyway.

The Seth Show

Here's my humble attempt at a video collage of recent Seth footage. Enjoy.

Good hygiene is important

I am a proud father. When I saw this, I thought, "wow, my boy sure is ahead of the game." I like to believe that this is an example of Seth's superior intelligence. At only 5 months old, he is mimicking his parents, and practicing good hygiene. The fact that he puts anything he gets his hands on in his mouth (i.e. dirty fingers, toys, coffee table legs, clothes, toes, etc.), is beside the point.

Where are the bumper stickers?

One of the most obvious differences between San Diego and the Berkeley/Oakland area, is the lack of preachy, political bumper stickers here. Aaron and I are generally opposed to trashing our cars with stickers, but we even got into the Berkeley spirit when we got a sticker from a foundation we feel passionately about (Save Darfur). It's in the window of our Honda, which pretty much looks like a piece of trash anyway (partly because it's old and we never wash it). I'm probably safer on the road now that I'm never straining to read messages on people's cars. The only bumper sticker I've seen in San Diego so far, just said "Notary Public". Do these people really need to drum up enthusiasm for notarizing stuff? What more could I notarize if I felt compelled? Maybe it could make a cute addition to otherwise casual notes that I sign. The notaries out there probably just have a brotherhood thing going. Anyway, La Jolla is certainly lacking the hippy spirit we're accustomed to, and the cars look a lot sharper here.

Bye Bye Bay

After many goodbyes, Aaron and Seth and I packed our truck and headed to San Diego to begin a new chapter in our lives. I developed a new appreciation for my husband, who believes in packing boxes early, a little at a time over a few weeks. Thanks to his encouragement and hard work, packing up our stuff wasn't as bad as it could have been. Huge thanks go to his Mom, Jeannine, for going well above the call of duty during this move. She came over the day before we got the truck, brought us dinner, helped us pack that night, spent the night on our couch, organized the packing of our truck the next day--which included lifting a lot of heavy stuff, did a lot of cleaning, and managed to entertain Seth for a good amount of time too (long enough for me to lay down and rest a few minutes in the afternoon because I was fighting a miserable cold). We went out for sushi that evening, then headed to Gilroy to spend the night. When we woke up at 4:00 to start our drive, Jeannine was in the kitchen cooking us breakfast! What planet is she from? I don't know, but we're really lucky to have her in our lives. So, Aaron drove the truck down, while Seth and I took the Subaru. Thanks to pistachios and Harry Potter on CD, I was able to stay awake for the drive (not to mention the 4 times Seth needed to stop). When we arrived in the afternoon, we decided to back the truck up to our door and see how much Aaron and I could accomplish before the Elder's Quorum from church was to show up and help us that evening. One thing led to another, and within a couple hours, we had emptied it all ourselves (This was quite a feat considering Aaron is still living with a gimpy arm--refer to blog from July 23rd). So, the rest of the story is, now we live here. Aaron's really into putting pictures on the walls, so thanks to him, it already feels like a home. Grandpa Rutman already started Seth down the path of hot tub addiction, so that boy's pretty happy that our new complex has a hot tub that he frequents. All we've really done is unpack so far, so we're excited to explore the area, especially the beaches. Our first visitor, Marcus, arrived today and leaves in the morning. We hope for more visits from family and friends soon, oh yeah, and making new friends here too.

Some pics of our new place:

No More Brains

Friday was my last day of work at the Gazzaley Neuroscience Laboratory at UC San Francisco. I had worked with Dr. Adam Gazzaley for about 3.5 years--2 at Berkeley and 1.5 at UCSF. It was really a fantastic time, and certainly ignited a fire under my butt for research. Adam was good enough to give me plenty of opportunities to be creative with my experiments, data analysis, and data presentation. I've spent the last couple months trying to wrap up my experiments, passing my data along to other researchers who will take over my projects, preparing to present at a conference in November, and writing a research article that will (hopefully) be submitted in the near future--not to mention preparing to move to San Diego and begin medical school.

I'm really gonna miss the work. You know, doing research can be a horribly frustrating thing--but it is soooo addictive. It's like when you're playing a video game and you're at the end of the level and keep dying--you have to keep trying until you beat it--and then once you do you realize there's another level--it's never-ending.

Our lab studies memory, attention, and aging. We use several neurophysiological techiques (techniques that look at, record, and perturb brain activity: functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and transcranial magnetic stimulation(TMS)) to study how the brain processes involved in memory and attention function and change with age. We use human subjects (no rats or monkeys). Most of our experiments include two age populations--a young group (18-35 yrs.), and an old group (60-80 yrs.). Then we compare the neural activities associated with memory and attention between the two groups in order to 1) better understand the brain networks and regions that are involved, and 2) understand how these networks change, degrade, and compensate with age. The idea is, once we understand it, we can better treat it. So that's what I've been doing the last couple of years. School starts next week in San Diego and a whole new chapter begins--I'm really excited. But I'm gonna miss the old chapter too.

Lindsay has been a research subject for me a few times:

EEG--72 electrodes measure and record electrical brain activity

fMRI--going into the MRI scanner


our brains:
Lindsay (press play)

This is a 3D rendering (the weird lines around the ears are where she was wearing headphones)

Aaron (press play)


an example of functional data from an fMRI scan:
the colors represent relative activity in these brain regions while performing a specific task in the scanner.

Aaron and Lindsay Simpson

At the Simpson's Movie website, you can create your own Simpson's character. This is the result.

When the Stars Go Blue

Aaron and I got to go on a real date last week. We ditched Seth and went to a Ryan Adams concert (not to be confused with Bryan Adams, the raspy voiced Robin Hood soundtrack making guy). When we arrived, Ryan was meandering through the audience just talking to people. He looks like such a regular person, most people didn't recognize it was him. Aaron, with his man-crush of many years, recognized him immediately and asked me to go talk to him and get his autograph. I was feeling shy, but Aaron insisted I had a better chance since I'm a girl. So, I went over to him and said--"Ryan, will you sign my ticket?" He replied, "I'm really sorry, but if I start signing autographs, I have to do it for everyone, and I can't do it right now. It's like a whore who says she won't kiss on the lips, and then once she kisses one person on the lips, she has to do it for everybody." I thought that was a legitimate reason, and the alcohol on his breath made his choice of explanation make even more sense. The concert was great. Our favorite part was when he said he was going to play a Tim McGraw song and played "When the Stars Go Blue". It's funny to us because that's actually a Ryan Adams song that Tim McGraw covered, and most people think it's Tim's. He also improvised an awesome happy birthday song to a random member of the audience named Summer Ray Brown from Kentucky. All in all it was a good night with Ryan.

Here is a cellphone picture of Ryan talking to an audience member a few rows ahead of us.

I am a man Lindsay, a MAN.

This weekend Lindsay, Seth and I went to Ashland, Oregon to spend time with family and meet our new little nephew John Judson. We had a great time. It's always fun to visit Lindsay's brothers--her older brother Doug owns a freakin' mountain on which he has created his own little motocross wonderland. Now you must understand that I am nothing more than a very inexperienced beginner on a dirt bike. But I have to prove to my wife that I am a man, so I always give it my best shot. I spent all morning honing my skills, and as soon as she got out the camera I totally ate it and jacked myself. Four days later, I still can't move my right arm. Good thing for the helmet and armour, or else my face would be flat and my arm broken. Can't wait to get back up there and do it again.

Future Drummer?

at 17 weeks, already he likes to play.

He's a jumpin' fool

The leech

Anyone have George Lucas's phone number?

I had a great dream last night. It's fairly indicative of how I spend a good deal of my time these days. I dreamt I was watching a new Star Wars movie about Anakin Skywalker being breastfed as an infant. As the movie was coming to a close, I realized there had been no action sequences or weird creatures, just 2 hours of breastfeeding drama. I thought to myself, what a relief, this is the best Star Wars movie I've ever seen!

The Meeting of Two Great Minds--The Seth and Sam Summit

Seth and his cousin (2nd cousin actually, but close enough!) finally met on the 4th of July. After much anticipation, the boys hit it off quickly. We expected them to get together and discuss things like holding up your head, hair loss concerns, or gas pains. To the surprise of their parents, as soon as they met and donned their matching American flag onesies, they went straight to business discussing the future of our nation.

Spirits are high as the Summit begins.

Seth is astounded as Sam briefs him on the latest statistical reports on energy consumption of cloth vs. disposable diapers.

Midway through the summit, discouraged and emotionally exhausted, Seth needs some extra encouragement to go on.

Proud of our boys for their perseverance, the meeting comes to a close with definitive plans in place. That's patriotism.

Go Giants!

Seth expresses his jubilation at the Giant's victory over the Diamondbacks, 4-1.