We're Famous!

Well ok, famous in little physics circles.

In the newest Symmetry publication (Symmetry is a joint publication between Fermilab and another high energy lab that is located in California), there is an article about married physics couples are we are in it, which is exciting. You can read the article here and see some pictures of us and the whole "how we met" is included.

Enjoy!

Warmness Here I Come!

oh Friday. Why are you still three days away? Sarasota for 8 days and then the Bahamas for 8 days.....Get me the hell outta Chicago in March!

I suppose I was a bit confusing last time I posted. We just barely were able to get the tickets when we got them...but it's only money right? I suppose I have lots of time to make money, but only one time to go to the Bahamas and only have to pay for my airfare. We will stay aboard my Dad's 40ft sailboat and travel to many of the islands that are down there. At http://scottsuesailaway.blogspot.com you can see lots of picutres up of their trip including all the places that Jason and I will be visiting when we are there.

So I sit nervously on the edge of my seat waiting for Friday morning. Jason and I both have set things that we need to have done and running before we go....so the sooner that happens....the sooner we can really start packing and getting ready to go. My big plan is to run every day while I am in Florida. Then I'm guessing we'll go to the Beach or visit my crazy grandparents and go see my cousins after they get home from school...oh yeah and we are going to a Reds Spring training game with Haight and his wife which should be a blast!

I am really really itching to run again. I know me, and I know when I get this feeling I am done for (in a good way) for the rest of the summer. It's looking 8 days of running, 8 days of swimming (or 8000 labs on the sailboat) and then we'll be back home. Then it's off to Washington DC for a businessy trip. Jason is going with me this year so we'll be able to run the Mall together. I ran last year by myself and it's a really great town to run in so I'm looking forward to that trip as well.

We just got back from Bloomington, IN which was nice. We saw our good friends Aaron and Karen while we were there which is always fun. Aaron recently accepted a position at the Theoretical Astrophysics Institute (or something)...in Zurich so those kids will be moving out there in the fall for the next three years which is just fantastic.

Jason gave an hour long high energy physics seminar while we were there and he did a really spectacular job. It's a little daunting speaking to a room full of PhD physics professors....in the end I think I was more nervous than him. It will be my turn to do this presentation sometime in the spring and I'm already sick about it. Hopefully it'll be better than my first ever presentation when I literally couldn't speak for my first two slides (it was awe-ful). But I'm a vetran now at giving talks so hopefully it wouldn't be so bad.

It's always fun visiting the town that your undergrad University was in. Jason and I met during our sophmore year and were quickly best friends and lab partners. It wasn't until 1.5 years later than we started dating. But I always go down there and get all, "Remember that time...or that other time..." and Jason just smiles and says....of course I do sweetie :-)

I think my code that I had to have done before I left is working, which is crazy! Nothing ever works for me this fast. Whee! I'll be able to check it tomorrow and see how it did and then hopefully it'll be set up to just run run run while I'm gone. (I am generating particles and it takes 15 minutes for 1 event and I need something like a million.......)

Alright. Happy Tuesday All!

Talking to Dad....Barely

My dad lives aboard his 40 ft sailboat which is now located in the Bahamas. For the first time since ...well since forever, I haven't been able to talk to him on a daily basis. That's right, I call my parents almost everyday. Leave me alone. Now that he and my stepmom are in the Bahamas it's espcially very hard to talk to them given the lack or very expensive existance of cell phones down there. We have gotten skype to work though which is cheap and pretty awesome.

BUT.....My dad just tried to call me via Skype but the connection on his end was too slow to get a phone call through. But I was able to chat with him via gmail for a few minutes. So I was on the chat trying to remember all the things that happened this week....oh and then our car was broken into....oh and then i fell on the ice and broke my ass.....oh and then I worked long hours at the lab....oh yeah and THEN....seriously I sound like I'm 2 years old....and then...and then...and then....

We will be going on a sailing cruise for part of our vacation with him. 8 days in the bahamas....I'll totally take that! As long as we can always afford a flight (somewhat this time) we'll have free places to stay in crazy exotic places. They don't ever plan on coming back to the state...at least for the next decade or so. This trip will be the first time that we will be visiting them somewhere other than the United States. I'm so excited.

Bring IT.

We'll be Cheering

oops.

The Shamrock Shuffle filled up and we didn't sign up. That's what you get for saying, I'll get to it tomorrow. But we'll come out and cheer for all you cool smart kids that signed up in time :-)

This Used to be a Running Blog....

no?

Humpf.

The last two days Jason and I have left our apartment at 6:30am and gotten home around 8:30pm. That's 14 hours if you are keeping count. 2 hours are driving so that's a 12 hour day. Yesterday I got home and did a bit more work finishing the night out at 9:30pm.

I talked to my advisor again about the conference and told him I really didn't feel comfortable keeping my name in for the talk given that I wouldn't be going to the conference (Jason and I have gone to this conference the past two years and so we don't get to go this year) and so someone would be presenting on behalf of our experiment. This is usually fine given that there is a paper to go along with the result, but I won't have that done by the time of the conference, so there really wouldn't be enough to show.

I also have not seen my mom for 14 months. And given that 14 months ago I saw her for 2 days it's really been a bit less that 2 years. In the last two years she has been diagnosed with Breast Cancer and had a hysterectomy. I am happy to report that the breast cancer was not "the bad kind" and was taken care of with radiation and a procedure which removed the bad cells. Since there is no money on either end I didn't go visit her during all of this.

Her parents who I saw 14 months ago recognized me then...I don't know if I can say the same thing for when I see them next week as they have slowly been getting worse and worse mentally. My grandmother is pretty far gone and I don't think my grandfather is too far behind her.

My point is I guess that I wanted to go on this vacation and see my family and not be pissed that I was there and not here working on this analysis so that I won't look like a shmuck at the conference. In the end my name is on the analysis and if I think it's not presentable then well it's not. It's a very strange community here as the conferences seem to come before the analysis which I have not ever understood. Why can't someone get a result and then work on getting it ready for whatever the next conference is. Last winter Jason found a mass peak for his analysis and then worked his ass off getting it ready for the conferences. But he had something to work with, he had a starting point and proof that yes he did have this state and blah blah blah.

I would like to have the situation here ready to go so when I get back from the vacation and my trip to Washington D.C. I can jump right back into it and get a result as soon as possible. In the end my advisor agreed with me...well I don't know if agreed is the right word but told me to go ahead and remove my name from the list. I know I am dissapointing people here....but goddamn it, I get paid almost nothing and have not taken a personal vacation since last christmas. If they paid us more than minimum wages I wouldn't mind the long hours and the no vacation but jesus give me a break.

So that's that. I am off to get some work done. 1 more week and I'll be in FL!

Happy Friday.

12 hours later....

and I was still at the lab so we missed out on the science book readings. A bit frustrating because I had been looking forward to going to that for a couple weeks. On the up side we spent about 2.5 hours with our advisor going over Jason's upcoming High Engery Physics Seminar (doesn't he sound so important) and then going over my analysis which as always is still in disarray. He assured me that I'm doing a good job and to try and not get frustrated. Given that I had to start all over with this analysis at the beginning of November I'm not doing so bad. I did have to ask if I could pull out of an upcoming conference because of my vacation and D.C. trip I don't think the analysis will be ready to present in April. SO...he's going to talk to the head of my physics group and see if it's ok. Last year I had to pull out as well, but it was too late to do it officially and so I had to go to the head of the session and be all, "Hi, I'm not done so I won't be talking" which was embarresing. So I'd rather do it now officially and then if it's done great it'll be ready for the summer conferences and if not then I'm not embarresing myself for a round two.

So no running yesterday as we were home really late.

Probably another long day today.

Come On VACATION!

$200 later

The window is fixed and we got some new windshield wipers. I have to give a HUGE recommendation to Safelite Auto Glass. You just give them a call, they tell you how much it will be and when a tech will be there. Then you wait patiently in front of your window watching your poor car that has a garbage bag over a window so that if there were to be a person that was interested in entering the car you could run outside and yell at them. Then they call you when they are there and 30 minutes later you have a new window. Very Slick. I don't know how much a window should cost, but I had too much work to do yesterday to be taking the car anywhere and getting stuck waiting around for it. So Safelite Auto Glass if you ever need a new window (next will be our windshield that has cracked due, we think, to the bitter cold temps that we had in Chicago land for the last apparently my lifetime).

Now the sad news. I don't think jason and I will be running the Sarasota half maraton. Not that we couldn't finish it, but we don't have the money to do it. It will be $110 for us both to do it and given then $200 that we just spent on the window it's just not possible. I don't think I would have had a problem finishing it and it would have been really fun to run a race down there, but it's just not finacially a good idea right now. I can always change my mind and sign up when I'm down there, but then the price shoots up again to 75 each I think and so it probably won't happen.

So that's that.

We went for a run last night in the awesome 45 degree weather. Just about 4 miles. I think we started to fast because we were a bit tired at the end....and by tired I mean we walked the last half...not mile...of the run. And you know. I wasn't thrilled, but Jason and I talked about what we were going to do when he gets a job in June and how nice it's going to be to have a slightly nicer apartment and be able to start looking for a condo in the next year or two years. It was so amazing outside that we just were loving walking around the neighborhood. Given that Tuesdays have been my off day anyways, I'm good with this.

It seems that my slip on the ice was a bit more of disaster than I had thought. I thought I was just going to have a scapped elbow and a sore butt as that is what I fell on, but as the evening progressed my entire back got more and more stiff. I went to bed last night and could barely move. I slept a long time and didn't want to get out of bed because it hurt too much to turn over. Hopefully this goes away sooner than later as it's literally a pain in the ass.

Tonight at Hopleaf there will be a very cool selections of science writers reading from their books as part of the Bookslut reading series. Jennifer Ouellette of Cocktail Party Physics is going to be there and I love her site so we are going to try and head over there. We'll see how work goes as I might still be here trying to find the elusive Bc.

YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME

I actually get up at 5am since I have so much work to do, Jason goes to get the car warmed up as I finish a few things and he comes back saying our car was broken into.

The back passegner window has been broken and we thought it was because we had left some winter coats in the back seat.....but no, those weren't taken, our radio wasn't taken....Nothing was taken. Who does that, just breaks a person's car window for fun?

I AM SO PISSED OFF. I HATE THIS STUPID FUCKING NEIGHBORHOOD.

I don't know what to do as we have to have a car to get to work. Alright, well welcome to Tuesday morning.

***UPDATE***
The pissed off moment has passed. Spoiled girl from the northside doesn't actually hate the neighborhood, but rather Western Avenue...which that's not even true as Western is the fastest street in the city. Ok, I hate Western Ave between Rice and Iowa Streets where the car was parked.

We found a glass company that will come to you to fix the glass and their customer service is open 24/7/365, so the very nice woman talking to a crazy lady at 6:30am deserves a huge high five.

To add to the "horror" of the morning, after Jason walked in telling me the window had been broken I rushed outside like my ass was on fire to look at the car, got to the alley right next to our apartment which was COVERED in ice and went down like a cartoon character. You know what I'm talking about, full body up in the air. Awesome. Which now that I think about it, I bet I looked really really funny.

Anyways. Hopefully the people coming to fix the car are as nice as the customer service lady was.

Laaaazy

Well that word describes my Sunday. Which was awesome. We got up early and walked down to the laundrymat. I don't know why we don't always do this as the place is about 3 blocks from our apartment. I guess usually we have our entire wardrobe dirty and so it wouldn't work, but if we stick to the laundry once a week deal this should be easy.

After the laundry we headed over to Bite for breakfast which was delicious and friendly as usual. After that we sat on the couch and watched a movie, then I continued work on my letters to Congress......and then.....that was it. I was so fucking cold all damn day that we ended up not going for a run. I do think that if I had signed up for a race I would have been in different spirits and well then I would have to preform, but as it stands now I am enjoying my relaxing running and the not having to run deals.

With higher temps (upper 30s and low 40s) this week I will be out there running more. This morning I walked outside and wow does 30 feel a lot different from 15. I could have almost gone out in shorts and a tshirt. Ok maybe not, but it just feels a whole hell of a lot warmer.

Tonight we have volleyball.....we are playing one of my least favorite teams, so I hope we can win a game.

Letters, Letters, Letters

In about a month I'll be taking a trip to Washington D.C. to visit with various Congress folks to discuss the importance of science funding. I have mentioned that I went on this trip last year and have been invited back for another round. I love Washington D.C. so I'm excited to have been invited back. Jason will be joining me this year since there was enough down time last year to make it worth it for him to be there. Plus there are a couple days on the trip when I won't have any meetings so we'll be able to do some sightseeing.

The first step of this process is to write letters to the offices that have been assigned to you. So after fighting with Word on my old laptop and just about throwing the laptop across the coffeehouse and then coming home and fighting even harder with Open Office, I decided it was time to get the iWork Suite on the Mac. And what do you know, click one thing and viola a letter template was up and easy to use. Why people even use machines other than Macs is beyond me.

ANYWAYS, I am in the throes of getting the letters together and trying to appeal to these people as I live in their district, have lived in their district, have in-laws that live in the district, have cousins or nieces or step family...or you get the idea. Then I absolutly have to get the meetings made within the next two weeks due to my vacation....so they are going to hate me by the middle of next week as I'll be calling twice a day if they don't give me a meeting....but then I'll have the meeting :-)

We did go running yesterday, a bit over three miles and my toes were really cold and numb afterwards. We are going to try and go about 5 miles today since it's a *bit* warmer today. Then tomorrow I'm guessing it'll be between 5 & 6.

SERIOUSLY

WHEN IS THIS FUCKING
WEATHER GOING TO FUCKING END??????

Degrees : 12
Feels Like : -3
Wind 16mph gusting to 20

I AM SO TIRED OF BEING COLD....I AM NOT ENJOYING "BEING TOUGH" AND RUNNING NO MATTER WHAT THE WEATHER IS...I WANT FUCKING SHORTS AND T-SHIRTS AND I WANT TO SWEAT AGAIN. JESUS.

but.... looking at the Weather Mac Widget there might be an end in sight

All Work and No Running....

You know the rest.

Yesterday I worked from 9-7:15, today I got up promptly at 5am and got in here by a bit before 7...that's right, that's less that a 12 hour turn around. I had a very tiny albeit perhaps important (how about that for non-commital) breakthrough last night with my analysis. I caught my advisor at the end of his OWL (midnight - 8am) shift this morning....which is always a great time to catch someone. At 7am, you are always a little cooky as your shift comes to an end. Anyways, he said it's looking good, but then said sometihng about integrating and then I went into cooky land. Sigh. I better start to understand what he is talking about as he has gone over it about a dozen times and I'm still sitting there smiling and nodding while I really have big question marks over my head.

So we didn't run last night as we got home, ate and went to bed.

In very very exciting news, Jason has been given the green light to start WRITING HIS THESIS. That means that come Mayish we'll all have to start calling him Dr. Jason. Also come Mayish he'll be able to get a job and we can get out of this financial nightmare that we are sitting in. Sure sure, I COULD go out less and not have to eat the 5 for $10 pizzas at the end of the month...but what fun would that be. On Tuesday we talked to a physics guy that now works at Bank of America which was very interesting and exciting as they really really like hiring PhD physics nerds and know what we are capable of. So maybe that connection will be able to bear some fruit....and when I say fruit I mean cash.

As for me, I am going to hand in my 6 months to go form. Not that this means that I'll be done in 6 months, but if a miracle occurs and I am done in 6 months I'll be allowed to graduate. Oh the thought of being done in 6 months has me doing imaginary dances in my cubicle....not that I can't dance or that I care if people see me...but imaginary cause 6 months seems so impossible. Baby steps.

Happy Friday everyone!

Go Cubs Go

Pitchers and Catchers Please REPORT!!!!

I am over the football season and it's time ...time to get excited about the good guys in Blue. For all you Cubs fans and Humor fans out there, Jason is a writer for this very cool blog : goatriders.org. For all your Cub info make sure to visit daily as they have funny photoshops, interview with players and well....just general wackiness.

(I just listened to Go Cubs Go by Steve Goodman and am getting pumped for the season...hence the above).

Jason and I are going to try and trudge through a run late this evening. We'll be at the lab late tonight with work stuff, so it probably won't be far, but we'll be going through inches of snow and so I get to count double right?

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

(oh yeah....Jason....I love you more than you can ever know)

We Ran Too!

Although the highlight of the weekend was seeing Barack Obama speak we did manage to get some runs in....although I wouldn't say that these would have been highlights if we hadn't gone to see him speak.....

ANYWAYS.

We skipped running on Friday because it was late and cold and windy and shitty out and well, I just didn't want to (I AM SO SICK OF BEING COLD). Instead we went on a dinner and movie date which is always fun. We went to this Mexican restaurant on Clark and Belmont called Killer Margarita which althoughis a little chachky like, has delicious margaritas (and really who doesn't want a frozen drink when it's 0 degrees outside) and tasty tasty food. I was noticing as we were waiting for out table, just how freakin hard the people there were working. Not one person was standing still. Whether it was fixing drinks, or delivering food, or busing tables, it was non stop at all times.

After dinner we headed over to Century Theather and caught The Queen which was really good. I have now seen 3/5 of the best picture nominees (The Departed, The Queen, Little Miss Sunshine) and although all of them are really good, I like The Departed the best so far.....we'll see what the Academy thinks.

On Saturday we slept in and then headed out for 4.5 miles. It was cold out but not so bad once we started moving. I'm so not as tough as other bloggers out there that are pulling out double digits runs in these shitty days...so nice job to all those folks out there. On Sunday we ran 5 miles and then did a lot of walking for the Barack Obama thing....and thus ended out weekend.

Yesterday we played really really well at volleyball. We won one game against one of the best teams in the league and came close on one of the other ones. Our team finally is starting to mesh which is a fun feeling.

It's really snowing badly here so we are working at home. Usually this isn't a problem, but today some old D-zero collaborators who now work in finance were coming into the lab to do some recruiting and Jason and I were two of the people that they were going to talk to. I am hoping that they reschedule, or at least we'll go in later when the roads are in a bit better shape.

alright. onto working.

Inspiring

(Obama @ UIC Pavillian 02/11/07 click picture for larger version)

Tonight we went to see Barack Obama speak at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). All I have to say is that if he is ever near your city, go and see him. He is truly an amazing speaking and I am excited to be SO excited about a candidate. The UIC pavillian was jammed...1.5 years before the primaries.

Awesome. Obama '08.

Not much to say

It's starting to get a little warmer, though. Yesterday we didn't run...again, but instead stuck to situps and pushups as we prepare for swimsuit season (which, as everyone knows, starts in March). But, with the new, warmer weather we are looking to head out for a run tonight. It probably won't be far but it'll be something.

We definitely promise to have Bears pictures up at some point and that's looking like it might happen sometime soon. The Bears hangover is starting to recede and so Bear-related thoughts can creep in again.

Um, yeah...just working a lot recently. It's just wild around here. Yep. Crazy. Woo.

Dreadful

That's what running on a Treadmill is.

Jesus, I do NOT know how people can do a lot of training on one of the machines.

Jason and I worked from 9am-8pm and then headed to the gym that is on site here. I chose to do the running first and then lifting weights and obviously Jason was the other way around since there is one treadmill to use. Never has 5 miles felt so long. Everytime I would look down at the distance completed it would have only jumped like .05 miles. Maybe if you had a treadmill in your house and could watch TV or something it would be ok, but staring at a wall for 45 minutes was less than fun. But I got through 5 miles...so I got that going for me.

After the running I lifted the weights to get all big and buff. I am also up to 110 situps (total of all the different flavors I do) and I have been trying to hold this plank position on each side and then in the middle(I am tired and realizing none of this is making sense)...but I am up to 50 seconds on each side & the middle....and will try and bump this to 1 minute soon. We are going to try and hit the gym again tomorrow pushing us up to three days of weight lifting.

I also weighed myself on the way out and even though the scale is kinda crappy it looks like I am down about 5-6 pounds since going to the doctor a couple weeks ago. I don't really care what the number is, but what is interesting to me is that there is a weight my body likes to be at and the second I get out of going to the bars to watch football and back to working out and eating a bit better I am back to that platau weight....which is nice I guess. Now if only those Coffee Nips would get out of my desk drawer...so creamy and delicious and really bad for my teeth.

We got home around 10:30, showered watching something on DVR and went to bed around 12:30am.....obviously then we didn't see 5am....but we were up at 6:45....15 minutes after the alarm went off....only because we set a cell phone alarm on the other side of the room....really forcing us to GET out of bed instead of just banging on our alarm clock.

I have a ton of work to do so I don't know if we'll be able to run today. I hate this, but I absolutly have to get something done before our vacation and I have three weeks until that happens. Three weeks till SUNSHINE and warm weather! Come on time....move faster!

Where the Hell is 5am!

Oh big plans of waking bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5am...where did you go. Why do you keep me thinking my alarm clock is some complicated contraption that just needs to be hit really hard to stop killing me.

Sigh.

Maybe tomorrow but the last two days I haven't gotten up till after 6:30. Maybe it's cause I am not going to bed till 11. I know better as I know going to bed at this time does not lead to a bright eyed 5am Leah.

I am up to my ears in a todo list and so I plan on working pretty late tonight and then Jason and I are going to go to the gym that is on site here. There is one treadmill, so I will run first and he will work out and then we'll switch. Takes twice as long...but this gym is like 30 bucks a year....so I can't complain.

Last night we got home to a freezing apartment and opted to hang out at a local coffee shop reading till the guy came to fix the heat. When we got home he was just finishing up and we got a spiffy new digital thermastat which should be awesome, but is keeping our apartment at 62 degrees...which although chilly.....is actually fine by me since heat isn't free. That's what electric blankets are for :-) After doing ab work and some pushups we both showered and then headed out to meet the cousin and her hubby for dinner at Penny's Noodle Shop. The walk there and back was probably a bit over 3 miles, so that counts as some good cross training I would say....especially considering there was snow to walk through.

Alright, onto a long day at work and then a long night at the gym....three weeks (!!!!) till our vacation.

Road to Recovery

Today I am wearing my Bears NFC Champs T-Shirt. It does burn a little...BUT they were a good team, and hell, I would rather have my team in the final game than not at all. Baby steps.

Last night we played volleyball and lost three games....but we did play the best team in the league & we stuck with them all of the games and didn't get blown out. After the game, I did 20 minutes on the elliptical machine, lifted weights, did ab work (gotta get the aggression out somehow) and then argued with some friends about whether or not Rex should be shot. I'm standing my ground that he's going to get better. Then when I'm right everyone can bow to me. He DID throw two interceptions in the 4th quarter, but (I think I read this in the morning paper...I could be totally wrong) he also threw for 110 yards in the 4th quarter...he has promise kids....

Ok. I'm done talking about the Bears .... when does training camp start?

We got home to cold apartment as our thermastat seems to be broken. So with single digit temps and no heat for 12 hours, you can imagine the coldness that was our apartment. The apartment people will be out to fix it today so hopefully we'll be home to a bit of a warmer apartment...that and our cat won't be frozen during the day.

Today is an off day. Tomorrow back to running....I am prolonging it so the temps move back up :-)

The Day After

I don't know what to say.

I have never been that sad about a sporting event (even the 2003 Cubs which just about killed me...5 outs away from the World Series....5 outs....ok, maybe I was just as sad then). I was so freakin' pumped for the game, I have read almost every Bears article this season, have treated Monday mornings like Christmas morning because I was excited to read the Bears coverage in the paper, memorized the words to Bear Down, heard the Superbowl Shuffle about once a day on Chicago radio.

And now it's over.

I wanted them to come out and shut all the "Peyton is God" announcers the hell up.

After by far the most exciting event in Chicago Sports ever with Devin Hester running back the opening kickoff (the bar we were at went INSANE), I didn't think the Bears could lose. They were up a touchdown and our defense could hold down the fort.

Rex had a fine game, not a great second half...but he looked good in the first half and I'm excited to see what he can do next year. He lead a very injured Bears team to the Superbowl in his FIRST full season. So here's hoping with a Mike Brown and Tommie Harris healthy next year we can be the defensive team that we were at the beginning of the season and with a Rex a year older and a year wiser he can bring Good Rex to the table more than Bad Rex.

We laughed & we cried....but in the end, holy crap is it fun having a team in the big game. Jason by the way just decided to be pissed about every play....he didn't root for anyone.....which I have to say was a bit annoying since either way one of his teams was going to win.....now then.

Like one of the headlines in the paper today : 261 days till kickoff.

Go Bears.
Go Cubs (9 days till pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.)

A Speedy Six

Yesterday was a repeat of last week's six mile run, the run that ended with a fast last mile and a great overall pace. Could we match it? Could we beat it? What would Urlacher do?

Speaking of Da Bears, the well documented Bear madness is about to hit its peak as
Superbowl weekend approaches and a city beaten down by a bitter February gratefully welcomes a reason to cheer (and stay inside in front of a TV). I've never been in a city around Championship time, aside from Bloomington when The Hoosiers made the Final Four. Chicago, however, is not Bloomington and the Superbowl is the Superbowl. If the Bears win, get ready for some celebrating.

And that's what Leah's been saying all week: "I just want to see you be sad if the Bears win and the bar's going crazy." And she's right, I can't see myself being sad in that case. And frankly, I don't want to see Chicago be sad just for the sake of my original team. I don't know, maybe I'm a bandwagonner. Maybe I'm not a loyal fan. Maybe I'm actually not real but rather just a figment of someone else's imagination, a dream inside someone's head (I kind of hope it's not that last one). But whatever the case, I can't root for the Bears to lose. I just can't.

Okay, but what about the Colts. I can't root for them to lose either, right? So can I root for the Bears to win but not root *against* the Colts? Hard to say, but I think that's what's going to happen. I'm a Chicagoan now and have been for a few years now. I identify myself with Chicago more than Indiana (for obvious reasons) and so I won't be rooting against my home team. But I won't be rooting against the Colts either. Make sense? Yeah, I don't think so either.

What was I talking about before? Ah yes, the run. It went well, I think. We started out with a 9:07 first mile and then the rest were somewhere under 9 with a nice 7:46 last mile...for Leah, I crapped out towards the end. Ran out of breath and so I had to finish the last 1/4-1/2 mile at a more moderate pace (to prevent the dying). What can I say, I'm no Urlacher.

But man, that cold. Technically, it was supposed to be warmer last night (26 instead of 19, I think) but it felt pretty damn cold to me. It seems that the cold really kicks our collective asses when it gets down to those kind of temperatures, especially with a little wind. So we were both spent and were asleep by nine [insert time that doesn't make us look like losers]. Thankfully, as the weather drops into the single digits this weekend, we have an excuse not to run outside like idiots.

Who needs a healthy lifestyle when you've got Da Bears. BRING ON THE OLDSTYLE!!

Working Cold...Running Hard??? Lions Bellies and Bears Oh MY!

Running Cold...Working Hard...that's better

Yesterday Jason and I got into the lab at about 6:25 am...that's right people, we were out of bed at 5:05 am. I love when that happens. So from about 6:30 to 2:30 I didn't stop working, didn't peruse much of the internet, didn't go out for lunch (Jason ran to PotBelly's...)...I just worked. Plot after plot was made and put together in a nice bundle to send to my advisor. I am trying to be more accountable for the work I do here. I have a new method which seems to be working well. I have been making PowerPoint like presentations filled with all the "to dos" that my advisor has given me during the meetings we have had. Then I can just systematically do the said lists and plus I am saving them on the web so that when he goes didn't I tell you to do that, I can either say, "No, cause I am writing everything down and it's not here...." OR the more typical I am guessing..." Yep, you did, I'm just an idiot and forgot about it..." Either way it seems to be working well AND I got a, "Really nice job Leah" on Tuesday when I talked to him last.

So anyways, I finished the Todos from Tuesday by yesterday afternoon and sent all the slides to him and should be meeting with him in a few minutes. I would like to get whatever new things there are to do done by tomorrow night becuase I *might* be sick on Monday. cough cough. (Go Bears). But we have a videoconference with him on Tuesdays and so I don't want it to look like I have done nothing. That's the idea anyways.....

We got home around 3:30pm and it was then that I decided that 5:05 is really really early as I was dragging a bit by this point. But we threw on some fun music and got pumped and got out there for a 5 mile run. I don't know why but 17 feels like 6 felt a LOT colder yesterday than it did on Sunday. We paced out miles in the low 9's and would have been under 9 if we hadn't gotten stopped by lights at certain places. The last 1.5 miles were directly into the wind and so it just got really cold. When we got home I had a bump on my side that looked like a mosquito bite, but I am guessing was just from my clothes rubbing at that point.

I was super drained by this point but as we got paid (!!!!) yesterday we went to the store and bought things other than Tombstone pizza 5 for $10. We had literally no food in the house. We spent a ton of money going out for the Bears games, which was totally worth it, but just made a difficult end of the month. So we are now snack full (which is funny because with all the food we got, there is only one dinner included in it....so we got LOTS of snack type things).

Alright, a tough two days at work and then it's SUPERBOWL WEEKEND. With that I'll leave you with these two picutures. First off is they have successuflly got the Bears helmets on the lions outside the Art Institute. The first time they tried to do this, the helmets were too small.....measure twice right? Anyway they are on there now and look great. And second, a pregnant woman sold ad space on her belly for two tickets on the 50 yard line. Which I have to say is awesome! Go Bears!

(pictures from Chicago Tribune)