A few recent photos

Lily recently developed a great "evil eye" stare. This is just a taste of it. She has a much better "I'm not amused" face than this but this one's pretty good.

Lily also has a fascination with Daddy's laptop. We're grateful to Apple for including a magnetic power cord connector because Lily pulls the cord out all the time. Hopefully it doesn't kill the battery. :)

Anwyn has some lovely bedhead. Anwyn is pretending she's driving a car.

Our bright-eyed and cheerful Lily.

Lily looking cute for the camera. Her hair is a little curly at the ends.

Anwyn sitting in the rocker chair today.

Here's a nice picture Anwyn took of Kristi and Lily.

Here's a photo Anwyn took of me while I was making biscuits for dinner.

We've just been having fun playing, working, going to school, and otherwise keeping busy.

Playtime

Isn't dressing up grand?

Fascinating experiments are conducted in the kitchen sink.

Dressed up for the park on one of the few cold days we experienced this winter. Yes, Anwyn is wearing socks on her hands. We live in Florida--we don't own mittens!

To Atlanta and Back Again

I got back from the annual conference of the International Neuropsychological Society, which was held in Atlanta this year. A group of us from my lab carpooled up. It was a cozy drive with 5 of us in a 5 seater sedan. The conference was at the Marriott Marquis, which is also where we stayed. The rooms were quite nice. I was gone from Tuesday morning until Saturday evening.

A view out my hotel room window on the 31st floor.

Looking down from the 31st floor to the ground floor of the hotel.

Me in front of one of my posters.

Looking up to the top of the hotel from the bottom.

Another picture looking up.

I had a great time at the conference. It was fun seeing some of the other research being conducted. I also liked seeing friends who are in various parts of the country. It's much better being home though, especially after being gone for so long.

Grow Old Along With Me

I have the sweetest husband. We've been missing each other this week while he is at a conference in Atlanta. But tonight I opened the door to the delivery man and received a surprise package from Jared. The girls and I were pretty excited to open it up and inside was a beautiful bouquet of flowers! I love getting flowers in the mail!

(Sorry, I don't have a picture to post since Jared has the camera with him, but the cala lillies and roses are really lovely.)

The card that he sent referenced "our" love song--Grow Old Along With Me. The lyrics were written by John Lennon.

Grow old along with me
The best is yet to be
When our time has come
We will be as one
God bless our love
God bless our love

Grow old along with me
Two branches of one tree
Face the setting sun
When the day is done
God bless our love
God bless our love

Spending our lives together
Man and wife together
World without end
World without end

Grow old along with me
Whatever fate decrees
We will see it through
For our love is true
God bless our love
God bless our love

Jared - thanks for the lovely flowers and thoughtfulness. Hurry home soon!

Best Google Search Ever!

Ok, maybe it's not the best but as a search that brought someone to my psychology blog, it's pretty good. Last April Fool's Day I wrote a post about the first successful brain transplant. I regularly receive visitors to my blog based on searches that are a variation on the theme of "successful brain transplant." Here's the search that brought someone to my blog tonight and had me actually laughing out loud:

neurosurgeon brain transplant contact list

Ok, maybe I'm the only one who thinks that's funny but we're nowhere close to doing brain transplants (not that general people would necessarily know that but still...). We've just recently barely been "successful" with face transplants. The brain is much more complex. Scientists have only just barely started having some success in transplanting (implanting) a few stem cells into lesioned areas of animals and having the cells wire up aparently correctly. Then there is the ethics of a brain transplant. That's a whole other discussion.

Anyway, I got a good chuckle out of the search terms (especially as I tried to imagine why someone was searching those terms). Maybe it wasn't funny, maybe they knew someone who had severe brain injury and can't function any more. But maybe it was someone who didn't like their brain that much and wanted a new one. It was just funny because most of the other searches that lead people to my psychology blog are more boring (e.g., "word superiority effect" or "hippocampal volume over time").

A Few Photos

I posted these photos before, at least in some form, but I recently did a little color manipulation of them for fun. The first photo is on campus, the second two are in Cardiff, Wales.

Baughman Center by Lake Alice. The colors are very slightly enhanced in this photo.

A pretty cathedral in midtown Cardiff.

One of the dragons of Wales.

Jared's Random Musings About College Memories and Journals

Ok, this post will be completely random but I wanted to write a bit about writing in journals. I've kept a journal on and off for many years. My freshman year of college I was really good at writing in it. I also have copies of every (or most) email that I sent to my family during that time (thanks Mom and Dad). I learned some things from these old emails (which are just supplements to my journal).

Can you spot me in the Homecoming Parade?

1. I did a standing long jump of 105 inches in ROTC (that's 2.81908144 × 10^-16 light years).
2. This is how I wrote about my Book of Mormon class: "My class with Pres. Bateman is dual taught by himself and some other guy named Millet (?)." What an intro! I quickly learned to love Bro. Millet's teaching. He was better than Pres. Bateman, actually, although Pres. Bateman was very good too. On a side note, I once had to have a field trip form signed by any professors whose classes I would miss. I went up to Pres. Bateman after class to ask if he would sign the form. He responded (as he signed it), "I don't know if I can sign this." He has a great sense of humor.
3. Shortly into my first semester of college, I wrote, "Today I got to sleep in! I only had to wake up at about 6:20 instead of 5:20." ROTC liked getting us going early.
4. For some reason impressing girls was pretty important.
5. Try to eat some food if you are about to march around in formation and stand at attention otherwise you might faint (no, I wasn't locking my knees). You also say such brilliant things when you come to and are asked how you are doing, such as, "My mouth hurts." :)
6. If you are in engineering you spend a lot of time in the computer lab, especially late at night.
7. Don't run down BYU library stairs and sprain your ankle. It takes a long time to fully recover.
8. Cute 3-year-olds are popular at Ward Prayer.
9. The vision in one of my eyes was 20/13. I don't know if it still is.
10. A 41% on a physics test was a C.

It really wasn't that cold out.

College was fun. Oh, wait; I'm still in college. I don't think it's quite as fun after 8.5 years and counting. :) It's more rewarding though.

The photo that was taken when I checked into Tingey Hall, where I lived freshman year.

I'm glad that I've kept what journal I have over the years. I think that's one reason I like blogging; it's like a journal. It's maybe not as personal (hopefully not that personal!) but still a record of life. Without a journal, we'd forget so much of our lives, unless you happen to have a perfect episodic memory system.

I know we look pretty scruffy, or is it manly? :) We (Eric, Ben, and myself) had just climed Squaw Peak, mostly at night, in the snow (hence the wet pants). It was very cold; of course, we weren't dressed that warmly.