Congrats!

Big ups to my colleagues (and by colleagues, I really mean superiors), Brian Caffo and Scott Zeger for winning teaching awards this year, and as always doing the department proud!

Pix!

Click to enlarge any of these joints:

You gotta love all ages shows..

they aren;t just for the but for the old like me. Last night I went to see Avail play at the Ottobar. As opposed to most shows with 4 bands where the headliner dones't play 'til 1:30, Avail went on at 9:50 and I was home by 11:15. They were amazing to say the least - I'm really glad I went. The crown(mostly < 21 years) went wild - ironic as the band members are probably close to me in age. Serious slam dancing and moshing, as well as almost religious singing along - I kept my distance from the mosh pit and enjoyed the energy and rock of the show!

Bloggin is my business

and business is good!

Anyhoo, back at you again on the day I work from home on my thesis research - this gives you some idea as to why it'll take me forever to be a PhD. My new plan is to get my name legally changed to "John McGready, PhD", and let that be the end of it. While I'm at it I could also add "MD" and "AOK" to the end of my name, guaranteeing me at least better reservations potential at fancy places. Hopkins is so degree-centric - all my mail comes addressed to me as "John McGready MS" - as if to constantly remind me that I still have yet to cross the threshold into PhD hood.

So anyway, we made the journey to Queens this weekend to celebrate Passover with my in-laws. Actually, part 1 of the journey was to Queens - part 2 was to Nyack, where my sister-in-law is a cantor at a synagogue, where we help the family Passover Seder. Of course, being the Saturday after Passover, it wasn't the real deal, but attracted some attention from a local news reporter who needed to do a story on a Seder and must have been sleeping on Wednesday, so she came to interview attendees and take photos. I was hoping to the family spokesperson for the holiday (one of the few non-Jews in attendance, I thought I could give another perspective) but I was not one of the chosen ones. The Seder was fun, Micah and Emmet had a blast playing with cousins Rose, Keith and Jason, and the horseradish was freshly ground.

The drives up and back to the NY area from Bmore were brutal though - much traffic around the city made for slow going. The boys were very patient though and managed to make the ride fun.

Emmet is now a serious walker, and semi-serious talker - he's got about 20 distinguishable words in his repertoire including "dada", "dog", "ball", and "bath". His eating is improving, although we still need to have him GI scoped on May 1 to see if there are any serious internal irritation or malabsorption issues. We went through this already with Micah so it’s not so scary this time around, but still, one hates to have to put their kid through such a procedure.

Micah is a ball of fun too, constantly making us laugh with his stories and statements. More pictures are forthcoming!

Gotta blog!

(BTW who came up with "Gotta eat" as a slogan for Checker's Restaurant...not a hardsell to say the least. Its like saying why should I buy this house - cause you gotta live somewhere)

So just a heads up for all you dawdlers, tax day is around the corner. Roni and I are way ahead of the game this tim around - we've already done our taxes, spent our refund in total, and re-run up credit card bills to cover daycare until Roni's fellowship kicks in. Dollars don't linger in this household, chop chop!

So last weekend we went to a birthday party for Micah's classmate Jake at a duckpin bowling alley - here's a totally nerdy comment - it was like a dynamic system - order among total chaos. Balls we dumped down the alleys in rapid succession - I don't think I saw less than 3-4 balls in an alley at any given time. Kids don't care about hitting pins- so soon as a a ball is launched, the launchers immediately runs to get another. Gutter guards were in place so all balls ultimately made it to the pin area- the pins kept getting reset because the allure of the reset button was too hard to pass up. Nevertheless, there were no injuries that I know of (except me when emmet dropped a ball on my shoeless foot!) Two hours later, parents were exhausted, kids were hyped on sugar from cake, juice and soda, and the meltdowns started in waves.
All in all a great time was had by all though.

The next day Gigi and Grandad (my folks) cruised in for the afternoon - we had a fantastic time. Many highlights to speak of, but my fave was playing hide and seek with my father and Micah at the park. Micah has little patience for the suspense element of the game, so he promptly reveals his hiding place even before the seekers are done counting!

So today is my work on my thesis from home day - I only mention this because I want to notify my colleagues that I am running simulations in R - not Stata, not SPSS, but R. I'm the outlaw in the department (ironically) becasue I use a PC instead of a Mac and use Stata more often than R. So while this should give some stats-cred points, I imagine I'll only get clowned about my combination of corporate conformity and luddite like ways by those colleagues who read this.

Just Checking in peeps!

Had a great Sunday going to the tot lot in Rodgers Forge with Emmet and Micah. This place is an uber-playground augmented by many donated toys such as pretend cars, lawnmowers etc..
Micah acted like a kid on a serious sugar high running from toy to toy in 5 second intervals!

Yesterday, I guest- emceed along with another faculty member the annual charity auction at the Bloomberg School. Had some fun, raised some money, told some jokes...

April Fools Baby!

But no jokes here, just straight up blogging!

So on Thurday eve I went to the 2nd installement of Spring Tonic, the Hopkins School of Public Health's talent show - a recently re-started big deal, with great talent - I am very proud of the students I know who showed some serious awesome skills. 'twas a ton of fun. I participated in another incarnation years ago, but now I shy away because the talent is hardcore.

Firday was cool, we chilled at home and got our customary Thai food.

Today (Saturday) was crazy busy. First, Music together - fun for Micah and Emmet, and me as I tore into a free form drum solo during the "do your own thing" part of the class. After that, Clara's 3rd birthday - so much fun, but Emmet was draggin big time. Nevertheless a great time was had, and it's such a joy to watch Micah eat regulat birthday cake now that his dairy allergy has passed! After the party, and a failed attempt at naps we rolled to the playground to get bizzy on swings and slides. After that a trip to Payless to get Emmet his first pair of sneakers- Thomas the Train just like big brutha. At first, he could hardly walk in them, within 5 minutes my boy was tearing around the store.

The weekend is still young, so more to come...