It's getting cold in here

so put on all your clothes!

Last weekend we roadtripped to the Philly area to see Aunt Kate, Gigi and Grandad and attend the annual Burgess (my paternal grandmother's maiden name) family picnic in Fort Washington State Park! What a great time. I have some amazing relatives - for example my 2nd cousin (or first cousin once removed, I never understand these things) David, who is only a few years my senior, has five amazing kids - ranging in age from 3-17 years.
I remember when his eldest two, Logan (17 years) and Quinn (15 years) were real young'uns - now they are nearly fully grown, beautiful, funny, athletic and super smart teens. His next in line Mannis (5-6 years) is a all of fire, and his twin girls Molly and Maggie (3 years) are really energetic - Micah and Emmet had fun playing with all of them. Much to my father's doing we played the annual softball game, and I for the first time, did a long stint as pitcher. Of course I was abysmal, but it was fun and I enjoyed the change from my normal position way in the outfield hoping that nothing came my way, and if it did it so overshot my placement there was a valid excuse for not catching the ball.

There was no room at the Inn (ie: my parent's house because they were hosting both my sister (Aunt Kate), and my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jim) - so we stayed at local Best Western and got our collective zzzzz's on. After spending the morning at my folks' place we may the trek back to Charm City on Sunday afternoon.

In other news, I have 285 students between my two sections of Statistical Reasoning I - I thought we had maxed out at 190 between the two sections last year! Needless to say I am over-the-top busy, and of course can;t find time to do my damn thesis work I really want to get out the results of my online/on campus learning comparison from last year - it was really well received at my presentation at JSM in Seattle (I even won the best contributed paper award for the Teaching Stats in the Health Sciences Section), but have not had ample time to finish up my paper for submission. I'll get there though, and maybe someone somewhere will read what I publish.

I'm the biostat rep for the school's reaccredidation committee - I thought having two young kids was hard, especially trying to get them to eat..but this is nothing compared to getting some of my colleagues to write a syllabus for their course offering. No more committee work for me in the near future, save that crap for someone who needs it to get tenure, that's what I say! Do I have a tattoo that says "Sucker" on my forehead? I must for this duty.

Aight, more to come soon! Hope everyone is well!

What would I blog about without youtube?

A few recent findings...

Death metal is a guilty pleasure- the heavy guitars, the cookie monster vocals - a vocal style so pervasive that even the Wall Street Journal wrote about it.

However, I was always perturbed by what I thought to be unsettling lyrical subject matter: guts, disembowelments, Satanism, apocalyptic visions. This video though gives me cause for reconsideration - as a public health nerd I am especially thankful for the focus on whole grains in one's diet.

The clips from what was apparently an early '80s low budget talent show, "Stairway to Stardom" are sometimes priceless. I've already posted some in past entries. Some of my faves include:

Aural carnage equally unlistenable as most death metal.

Nancy Reagan's compatriots in "Just Say No" outreach.

A comedian that makes Neil Hamburger look funny.

Aight, I'm out for now.

Reeeeeee-mix

er, um reeee-cap. My apologies to Missy Elliot, but she is Supa Dupa Fly.

Anyhow, how to describe this weekend - well you see that hook over there? - well this weekend was certainly off it (note this metaphor applies to chains as well).

Saturday we had Micah's 4th bday party at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. Clang, clang, clang goes the trolley. Most of Micah's classmates came , and a fab time was ad by all. A lot of bell ringing, streetcar riding, pizza eating and other shenanagins followed. Gigi and Grandad (my parents) made a cameo, and came back to our crib post-party for some relaxin' and playing! Later that eve we rolled to Scott's annual Chili Party, our 7th! Alas, the boys were exhausted from the party so we had to roll before tasting any chili.

Sunday morn we hung out with Emmet's best friend Eli, and his mommy who is on near bed rest becasue she is preggers with twins. We had a grand time. and to experience the Gestalt of Eli's toys. Sunday pm was consumed with naps, grocery shopping and the general mellow timbre of Sunday afternoons.

I am in full fleddged teaching mode - I have about 105 students in my on campus course (up from 90 last year), and 175 (!!!) in my online course (up from only 100 last year) .. I'm totally consumed by this, but an still gonna do some thesis work in the meantime. Gotta finish the doctorate so I can at least get paid more for the teaching right? And so I can from there on refer to myself as "John McGready PhD" in all of my communications so everyone will know how much more over-educated I am.

Happy Birthday Micah!

Today is truly a special day in the Neff-McGready household. Micah is 4 years old today! Despite being a statistician, I am unable to quantfiy how much Micah has enriched our lives. Micah and Emmet have infinitely increased the joy factor in our houshold. Micah, I remeber holding you for the first time when the nurse asked me "Whats him name". I shouted out "Micah" because it was obvious from the first moment that this is who you are!

Watching you grow into a fabulous verbal, athletic, caring, empathetic, musical, artistic and FUN 4-year old and watching you mature as a fantastic big brother to Emmet has been amazing. We love you and are thrilled to have you and Emmet in our lives.