my nanna

no, i'm not sixty years old, but blake calls me nanna, about as close to aunt penny as he's willing to try right now. when he gets mad at flav, he cries for 'my daddy'; when he gets mad at sam, he cries for 'my mommy'; but the best is when he gets mad at both of them and cries for 'my nanna' - tears running down his little sad face, arms outstretched. and do i exploit these bold moments of manipulation? duh. 'my nanna, my nanna' sniff, sniff. you try to resist that.

studying

sucks. haven't done it in awhile. apparently, blake shared not only his runny nose but his attention span as well. every three sentences i find myself doing something other than reading the textbook (like, say, writing a new post for the blog). i've spent the past twelve hours (not exagerating) trying to do homework and i've finished about a fourth of what is due tomorrow. this does not bode well.

two nights ago i went to borders to study and found a great magazine of do-it-yourself decorating projects. yesterday i tried studying in my room but rally kept wanting to play. today i e-mailed professors, ordered gas and electricity for my new condo, and researched car insurance. all of my class paperwork is very-well organized, the dishes are clean, grocery shopping is done, my bedroom is picked up, and i know how i'm getting to school tomorrow (sam, bless his little pea-pickin' heart, is giving me a ride - two less busses to ride). s'pose i should do some more homework...yes flav? you need me to hold ziva for a minute? oh, alright.

treasure sales

they're called yard sales (or jard sales in anaheim), garage sales, estate sales, etc. this is a misnomer, however, because the yards are not for sale, nor are the garages or the estates. what they should be called are treasure sales. blake moved up to a big-boy bed about three nights ago and today flav and i found a car bed at a treasure sale for only twenty usd!! it's awesome and blake is super excited. he also has car sheets and a comforter so he's pretty much set. teddy bear? puh-lease, he's got trucks.

as exciting as that is, i found the real treasure: a vintage 1950's table and chair set, super small, seating for two, table for one - so cute! i've already taken it to my condo which is eagerly awaiting the rest of my stuff's arrival. can we say scheduling nightmare? whatev, it'll all work out. maybe blake will let me borrow his car bed...

keep the forklift away from the baby please

these are the kinds of things i find myself saying on a regular basis. two is a difficult age: you're beginning to realize the world doesn't revolve around you, you're getting too heavy to be carried everywhere, and people don't seem to like when you open the bathroom door. you just can't win.

attack of the influenza

first blake, then flav, then me, then sam. it's been an eventful several days and while sam has the immune system of a...um...horse (?) and has bounced back, flav and i are still recuperating. don't worry, we haven't been kissing any pigs, this was just a regular, horrible strain.

in other news, my nausea didn't hit until the second speaker of the symposium on thursday so i was disappointed to miss the symposium but orientation on wednesday was really great (and not just because i won a bucky-the-badger coffee-travel-mug). uw-m is such a great school, especially for population health. so many famous epidemiologists and other researchers are either on staff or have been at some point.

in other other news, i wore a sweatshirt today (it's still august for weather's sake!); costco's food park (you know, where you get half a pizza for $1.99) is inside; and i don't really care about the brett favre (which should really be spelled farve) thing.

did i mention i won a bucky mug?

old sauk road

it's pronounced 'sock', it's exit 253 off the beltline, and it makes me laugh everytime i see it.

so, turns out i have really curly hair. temperatures have been in the 80s with rain every few days. they call it hew-mih-dih-tee.

much has happened since my last post: my car arrived (with a funky smell, i might add); i found an apartment and signed the lease (but won't move in 'til mid-september); i met with my supervisor for my new job (they're still waiting for my criminal background check to clear - keep your fingers crossed); i met with my advisor for school and registered for classes. i get to take intro to epidemiology for the third time in my academic career and intro to biostatistics for the second time. the only redeeming grace is that i don't have to buy a new textbook for biostats; it's the same book as the one i used at ucla!!!! happy, happy day!!

children and animals update - blake stops crying when you kiss his boo-boos. likewise, he kisses others' boo-boos so sometimes i exagerate my pain to get a kiss. he's adorable. ziva is as mild as mild can be, petite, and pleasant. i took some great pictures of them and their cousin payton (sam's brother's daughter) the other day. can't post 'em per their parents' request, but believe me, they're cute. rally and hayden are bff''s. they kiss and when i get a picture of that, it'll be posted. hayden waits outside my bedroom door for rally to come out so he can follow her around. tyson, when he realizes she's near, barks, so rally stays away from him. but other than that, the eight of us are living together quite well.

next week i have orientation for school and a two-day population health symposium and then school and work start the next week. that's all for now.

i have arrived

hello madison. hello central time zone; 75-degree weather; land of cheese; and a house of chaos. did you know two-year olds are not still and quiet? it's true. especially little boys who like to wear their aunt's sunglasses. add to the two-year old a three-month old baby, two parents, and two dogs and you've got a house of non-stop mayhem and madness. the baby is beautiful and mild-mannered and blake is adorable and not cranky at all when he's tired. flavia and sam are wonderful hosts and one of the dogs has camped outside my bedroom door trying to welcome rally.

today i went on a tour of the city and saw the uw campus, the building where i'll work, and other critical sites like chipotle and target. tomorrow i meet with both my supervisor (for work) and my advisor (for school). i'll probably also check out some apartments tomorrow. (oh the tedium of blogs - at least i didn't tell you about our trip to costco and the grocery store)

and that's it for tonight.

anyone know what an ulcer feels like?

nine days to go and my apartment is a mess. this pile is 'donate', this pile is 'trash', this pile is 'shred', this pile is 'definitely going', this pile is 'dirty dishes' (don't worry, they'll be clean before i pack them). really, i'm just moving things from one room to another and from one pile to another. books, movies, and cds are packed; bookcases are disassembled; and all closets, cupboards, and drawers have been cleaned out. well, and i took out the trash today. that's it; that's all that's done. and i have nine days to go which includes 40 hours of work and at least that many hours of sleep. fortunately, i have very helpful friends - like one who sent me an article detailing the over 600 kinds of cheese made in wisconsin. that's right, over 600. they also make lots of beer. i hear it helps dull the pain of ulcers.

wisconsin bound

two weeks from right now, everything but me, my cat, and two suitcases will be on a truck, heading for madison, wisconsin. two weeks and twelve hours from now, those two suitcases, my cat, and i will board a plane and travel to houston, texas. just kidding, we'll be going to madison, wisconsin too. i've been accepted to the population health phd program at the university of wisconsin, madison, school of medicine and public health. my focus will be epidemiology (the study of epidemics) and i've been offered full funding and a part-time research assistant position.

so the countdown is on. i have seven work days left, nowhere near enough time to finish all of the projects i'd like to wrap up and two weekends left to finish packing and cleaning my apartment as well as visit with friends and family before i leave california. speaking of california, it's 10:00 pm and 80 degrees. i'm sweating in my apartment and rally's rolling around on the cool tile kitchen floor. people keep telling me wisconsin has something called 'winter'?? i have a feeling that won't be the only new experience. for those i haven't shared with, my plan is to stay with my sister and her family until i find an apartment, hopefully rather quickly as orientation is 26 august and classes begin 1 september. i'm looking forward to spending time with blake and ziva, my favorite nephew and niece.

so that's all for now. stay tuned as the adventure unfolds.