You spent how much money on that?! Why would you do that without discussing it with me?

Hmph. Well whatever I don’t want to talk about it anymore.

Fine, I don’t want to talk about it either.

I’m really sorry, please forgive me.

I do. I’ve said some mean things before too. Lets never fight again. Hugs?

Um, this doesn’t concern you. Now get us some food.

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This was just before the start, I was pretty excited to get going.

Spencer was only moderately excited.

Spencer running after the start, look at him go!

I got a leg cramp trying to jump a wall just before this, so I couldn’t climb the rope . But man, look at Spencer scaling the wall!

Mud!!

More mud!!

The forest part of the run, this was the best part.

Waiting for an obstacle.

In the mud river at the very end.

Oh we so totally cheated death.

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I took this one with the intention of it being a perspectives pic, but I’m not feeling motivated enough to do a separate post.

This sign wasn’t lying; almost poked my eye out more times than I care to admit.

Birds were diggin about for feed!

This reflection one is by far my favorite.

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I love how this thing catches light!

That’s it for the visionary museum. They don’t allow indoor photography which seems very odd. But there were some neat things including this toothpick sculpture, which he worked on off and on for 30 years. After the museum we went to the observation deck. This section of the window had the names of victims of 9/11.

Looking east.

Northeast. The blue/green building in the center is the new Hopkins hospital expansion.

The Pier Six Pavilion.

South east.

West.

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So on to the science center! We saw a couple IMAX movies, and Spencer laid on the bed of nails; he had a good time.

Mr. Dinosaur

Spencer: Hey
Mr. Skeleton Dinosaur: Hey
Spencer: Don’t eat me.
Mr. Skeleton: Okay.

It went well; Spencer made a new friend.

After the science center we went to watch the 200 festively dressed tubas play holiday music! The music was surprisingly underwhelming, but the announcer man said they practiced once, for one hour, right before the event. So I guess considering that, it was pretty good. But there was a cute puppy in a santa hat!

And there were many Santas there.

And the tubas were pretty!

Awwwwww.

After dinner we saw the light show at the power plant, where they play music and project lights onto the building. It was only about 5 minutes long, but it was pretty good.

And finally we watched the parade of lighted boats. Here are a couple of our favorite boats.

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The Norwegian tall ship was docked!

Couple shot!

Self couple shot!

Spencer poopy shot! Isn’t he handsome? Sure do love my Spencer poopy poo. You may vomit now.

The puffin!! THE PUFFIN!! Though the puffin was a jerk and didn’t stick around afterward for pictures. Not that I wanted a picture with him anyway. But look how cute he is! I guess I can forgive him this one time. More puffins here, here, and here.

The stilt-walking-lantern-headed people. They were having so much fun, especially the lady on the bottom right.

These star things where my favorite.

After the parade, Santa came out (that’s him in the middle) and gave a speech. He said something about the holidays?? I’d stopped listening, too preoccupied with trying to find the puffin.

The confetti at the end was awesome, looked like snow. I sure wish we get 10 feet this year.

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Perfect! This is actually cut up already, the original had about 25 rows, with about 15 chips per row. I started out by cutting them into strips…

then individual chips…

lots and lots and lots and lots of chips….

All the cutting got tedious, so I took a break and played with the blocks a little, first lining them up to see how I might want to group them. But this reminded me of a random walk, and then made me wonder if the blocks were aware of their stochastic activity, which then made me wonder if the blocks even know what stochastic meant, probably not perhaps I should explai– and dear god I’m talking to small strips of paper. Lesson learned, take more breaks during the cutting process.

After the cutting, I used double-sided tape to attach them to a thick piece of cardstock. Since I didn’t use bookboard, I needed something sturdy enough to give them some weight, and this seemed to work well.

Next I cut them out, attached the magnets, then it was time to glaze! I tried to find Aleene’s Paper Glaze she mentions in the article, but the store I went to didn’t carry it. So I went with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. I was a little worried about the ‘runnyness’ of it, but it worked great! I actually can’t imagine something thicker, seems like it’d be harder to work with. Plus, with a name like ‘dimensional magic’ you know it can’t be bad.

Goes on opaque…

but dries clear!! How cute are these! I should have used a dime as a reference, but the short side of these are about the size of a dime, long side just slightly larger than a quarter (you can also use the tape picture about, the tape is standard width scotch). They remind me of little flags! There is a slight air bubble problem but it’s hardly noticeable.

So what else can benefit from dimensional magic?!?! I had these small foam letter left over from a work project and I thought I could incorporate them somehow.

Ta da! This was made using more paint chips cut into squares. I had a mishap with the glaze and it spilled over the side mid-process. So there’s less dimensional magic going on, but I still think it turned out great! Shiny!

So I decided to do individual letters. If I find enough Xs and Os I think I’ll make enough to play tic tac toe! I’m totally smitten with this stuff.

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But I’m glad I quickly got over that, moved on, and now I have some good news!

My last figuring it out post was purposefully cryptic, as everything was still unofficial, but I can now discuss it more fully. That is a picture of a goose (or duck?) taken in Fells Point, Baltimore, after I had my second (or fourth?) interview with Johns Hopkins University. It took a few weeks to make everything official with HR, but they hired me! The position is a biostatistician with the Welch Center. To say I’m excited is a huge understatement. I’m so excited about this opportunity and what lies ahead; so excited about the type of work I could, and will, be doing; so excited to work in this type of environment, with brilliant, passionate people. Yes, slight vomit, but I’m excited!

Perhaps what I’m most excited about is how this fits in with my career goals. I think this position pretty much meets the two goals I described in my first post on this topic. I’m sure it’ll be challenging analytically and creatively; it’ll give me the chance to use everything I’ve learned thus far; and that it’ll let me feel like I’m making a difference, however small it may be (well small at first). And as an added perk, it’s reaffirmed my nerdom! I love reading and learning about this stuff! I got an email a few weeks back when they ordered Stata for me* and I might have had a minor nerd freak-out involving many involuntary squeals and screeches, followed by excited giggles and oh-my-gosh-I’m-such-a-nerd realizations. But yay for Stata!

But at the same time it’s bittersweet and somewhat frightening. I’ve been in my current division for over five years. I’ve been fortunate to work with lots of awesome people and on some very interesting stuff, so it’s definitely like, the end of an era!

So I meant to publish this before I started my new job, but it wasn’t to be. I just finished my first week and hopefully a post will be forthcoming shortly! For now, here is a pic my awesome FIL, Lance, took on my last day at work. There I am standing like a goober, waiting for my ride with my moving boxes (and somehow still managed to blink even though I was unaware of the phototaking).

And the close-up… Woe is me personal moment? I think not

* Work gave me the CD, so I just installed Stata on my laptop tonight! I think I’ll like it (relax SAS, nobody could ever replace you), though earlier at work Stata and I got into a tiff when it blatantly refused to clear the results window despite repeated urgings, ctrl-Es, yellings, and pleadings from me.

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Apparently we can’t take non-blurry portraits of ourselves.

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We stayed at the Marquesa, which is the loveliest hotel I’ve ever stayed at. I should have taken more pictures of the pool area and our room, but their website does a pretty good job. The service was excellent, our room was great, and the pool area was amazing.

The side of the hotel. The car on the left is our rental!

In the pool!

We did two excursions while in Key West. The first was a jet ski tour that took us all the way around the island. Here we are waiting to start.

Excellent views!

Spencer’s view, just pulling away from land.

The view from the back. I was quite frightened the entire time, those things are fast!

My handsome hubby!

For the second trip, we did a kayak/snorkel tour, where we saw horseshoe crab, birds, and lobsters.

We spent that night at the pier watching the sunset.

Love the colors it creates on the water.

Before leaving we went to a place called the secret garden. There were birds there which were pretty cool. This one had a bell which she kept flinging.

Good bird!

This one was bad! Okay maybe not, but it wanted constant attention and to hold hands, which was pretty cute. But then kept making the loudest, most annoying, noises, and then it bit Spencer!! I’m sure it just though he was feed….

Before the biting…

View on the way back. Wish we could have stayed longer, Key West is a neat place.

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