Sam told Maggie's day care that her last day will be August 11th. I still can't believe that she will be in kindergarten and we will be free of huge day care bills. We will be paying for full day kindergarten next year since our school district only does half day, but it will still be much cheaper. Maggie is so looking forward to going to school.
I picked her up on Monday right after nap time. I walked into the room to find her curled up on the floor in a ball. Apparently she does this about 3 times a week. They get her off her cot to put it away and she just lies down on the floor and wont move. She's going to get quite a shock when she doesn't get that 2/3 hour nap in the middle of the day. Sam says she's hard to get out of bed every morning, but she won't go to bed ant earlier than the rest of us. She's going to be a joy when she's a teenager!!!!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
All it took was a trophy
Sam took Ben to get his baseball trophy and photographs last night. I had no idea that they got a trophy and Ben was over-the-hill excited that he was getting one when I told him about it. He was so proud of it when he got home. He spent the rest of the night claening it. I must admit ist is pretty cool.
As soon as Ben got home, he promptly told me that he was going to play basketball, soccer and football next season. Isn't this the child that sat in the car after the last baseball game and proclaimed that he wasn't ever playing sports again???!!!!
As soon as Ben got home, he promptly told me that he was going to play basketball, soccer and football next season. Isn't this the child that sat in the car after the last baseball game and proclaimed that he wasn't ever playing sports again???!!!!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Sleepover at the City Museum
We did the family sleepover at the City Museum on Sunday night. It was an interesting experience to say the least. The whole event started at 6 on Sunday night and ran until 8 on Monday morning. We slept in the architecture room on the 3rd floor, so the first thing we did when we got there was set up the beds. This was our sleeping area for the night. 
We got to eat a pretty decent pizza buffet. The circus did a performance at 8, but the kids weren't interested in seeing it-they've seen it often enough already. The kids ran absolutely everywhere. They went down the slides, inside....
and out.....
We got to eat a pretty decent pizza buffet. The circus did a performance at 8, but the kids weren't interested in seeing it-they've seen it often enough already. The kids ran absolutely everywhere. They went down the slides, inside....and out..... They climbed through numerous tunnels
They played in the ball pit 
They hid in their favourite nest & did their sad look 
They played out in MonstroCity for a long time
They finished off the night by spending some time in art city. Ben made a wand and a crown. They both made some interesting things with clay-Maggie's were mostly flat with a few cuts on them, Ben made some teeth, a fountain and a hand. 
They were showing Pirates of the Caribbean at 11, so we watched a bit of that, but I gave up pretty soon after it started as I've seen it so many times already. We left Ben in the skate park and he ran around until around 1 am before he finally came to bed. In the morning, we got to go out on the rooftop, we haven't been up there before and it is really cool to see. 
The views of the City are great. 
Ben and Maggie got to ride the Ferris wheel. 
They loved going in the school bus that is hanging off the edge of the building (I tried not to think about what was below us) . 
I got a photo of Sam standing under the praying mantis, I never thought any of us would be that close to it, I have been looking at it up on the roof for years. 
Right after I took this picture, Ben fell in here, these stepping stones are not as stable as they look. Luckily, he made it to the side without getting too wet, but he wasn't impressed that we were all laughing at him-it was too funny not to. 
After we ate breakfast, it was time to pack up everything and go to work. All-in-all, it was a great event, the kids had a lot of fun and it was very different being there at night with not a lot of people around. Ben was not very keen on being in the caves because there was no-one but us in there, he said it was too spooky. The only real disadvantage was the fact that this is held on a Sunday night, you get very little sleep and Monday morning is still there when you get up....
They played out in MonstroCity for a long timeThey finished off the night by spending some time in art city. Ben made a wand and a crown. They both made some interesting things with clay-Maggie's were mostly flat with a few cuts on them, Ben made some teeth, a fountain and a hand. They were showing Pirates of the Caribbean at 11, so we watched a bit of that, but I gave up pretty soon after it started as I've seen it so many times already. We left Ben in the skate park and he ran around until around 1 am before he finally came to bed. In the morning, we got to go out on the rooftop, we haven't been up there before and it is really cool to see. The views of the City are great. Ben and Maggie got to ride the Ferris wheel. They loved going in the school bus that is hanging off the edge of the building (I tried not to think about what was below us) . I got a photo of Sam standing under the praying mantis, I never thought any of us would be that close to it, I have been looking at it up on the roof for years. Right after I took this picture, Ben fell in here, these stepping stones are not as stable as they look. Luckily, he made it to the side without getting too wet, but he wasn't impressed that we were all laughing at him-it was too funny not to. After we ate breakfast, it was time to pack up everything and go to work. All-in-all, it was a great event, the kids had a lot of fun and it was very different being there at night with not a lot of people around. Ben was not very keen on being in the caves because there was no-one but us in there, he said it was too spooky. The only real disadvantage was the fact that this is held on a Sunday night, you get very little sleep and Monday morning is still there when you get up....Saturday, July 25, 2009
Ben's Summer school report
Ben had a great time in Summer school. I really think that if he could go to school for 3 or 4 hours a day & had no homework, that he'd be happy to go every day year round-hey, that's an idea....
I think it really helped him this year, I have noticed subtle advances in his reading and his ability to add things up in his head. He also got a really good report, his reading teacher even said he was hard working!!! It sounds like he really made an effort to contribute to the classes. I told him that he got a really good report and he immediately said "that means I get my Super Mario DS game". I had promised him that I would buy him the game if he worked hard all Summer, but I had completely forgotten about it. It's funny how kids never forget some things...
I think it really helped him this year, I have noticed subtle advances in his reading and his ability to add things up in his head. He also got a really good report, his reading teacher even said he was hard working!!! It sounds like he really made an effort to contribute to the classes. I told him that he got a really good report and he immediately said "that means I get my Super Mario DS game". I had promised him that I would buy him the game if he worked hard all Summer, but I had completely forgotten about it. It's funny how kids never forget some things...
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
What it means to be an academic scientist
People that work in my profession are essentially masochistic. They obviously love being told over & over how worthless and hopeless they are and that the only way for them to be salvaged in any way is to listen to the brutal comments of the reviewer and hope you can do better next time. Trying to get a paper published is bad enough. You spend days/weeks putting your data together and writing the best paper you can, then you have to please 3 reviewers who essentially want you to do another 2 years worth of work to do the experiments they would have done if only they had the resources/expertise/inclination to do them. That's if you are lucky. If you've aimed too high with your choice of journal, you'll get an outright rejection with an admonishment to never darken their door again disguised as "rejection should not discourage you from submitting a manuscript in the future"
As anyone in research knows, the true horror starts when you apply for a grant to fund your ground breaking research that (in your opinion) will answer all the key questions surrounding your disease of the moment. You get 2 attempts at getting your application in the fundable range, which these days is maybe the top 8-12% if you are lucky. Your first application is likely to get streamlined, which means you get very little feedback because it wasn't even discussed at a study section meeting. You will get written comments back that can range from "the applicant has no expertise in this area and it shows" to "there is little novelty" to "this is a well written application describing all the appropriate studies", but most of the time there is nothing concrete that you can address to make the application better. That means you have one more chance to make your application 5-10 times better than your best shot and you'd better get it right or you're out. Oh, then when you finally get a good score, you're told that they are going to cut a year off your timeline, cut your requested budget to 70% and still expect you to get all the work done.
So, why do people work in academic research? It must be the salary. No, you'd get paid 2-3 times more in industry. Then, it must be the flexibility. Not really, unless you're flexible enough to work 50-60 hours a week. Oh, it's the tuition remission. Yeah, that would be great if it's still available in 10-15 years time & my children can ever get the grades to get into SLU.
OK, there has to be a plus to all of this. Sitting here at 3am, it's just not coming to me. Why am I sitting here at 3am? Because a cat and a child woke me up at 1 am and I never went back to sleep because I was worrying about how I will ever get a grant funded and thinking of all the work I need to get done this week. So, why am I writing this rubbish?
Do you want to offer me an alternative job? Don't bother, I love doing what I'm doing....
As anyone in research knows, the true horror starts when you apply for a grant to fund your ground breaking research that (in your opinion) will answer all the key questions surrounding your disease of the moment. You get 2 attempts at getting your application in the fundable range, which these days is maybe the top 8-12% if you are lucky. Your first application is likely to get streamlined, which means you get very little feedback because it wasn't even discussed at a study section meeting. You will get written comments back that can range from "the applicant has no expertise in this area and it shows" to "there is little novelty" to "this is a well written application describing all the appropriate studies", but most of the time there is nothing concrete that you can address to make the application better. That means you have one more chance to make your application 5-10 times better than your best shot and you'd better get it right or you're out. Oh, then when you finally get a good score, you're told that they are going to cut a year off your timeline, cut your requested budget to 70% and still expect you to get all the work done.
So, why do people work in academic research? It must be the salary. No, you'd get paid 2-3 times more in industry. Then, it must be the flexibility. Not really, unless you're flexible enough to work 50-60 hours a week. Oh, it's the tuition remission. Yeah, that would be great if it's still available in 10-15 years time & my children can ever get the grades to get into SLU.
OK, there has to be a plus to all of this. Sitting here at 3am, it's just not coming to me. Why am I sitting here at 3am? Because a cat and a child woke me up at 1 am and I never went back to sleep because I was worrying about how I will ever get a grant funded and thinking of all the work I need to get done this week. So, why am I writing this rubbish?
Do you want to offer me an alternative job? Don't bother, I love doing what I'm doing....
Monday, July 20, 2009
Mr Imagination strikes again.....
We went through the McDonald's drive through yesterday and Ben & Maggie got a Beanie Baby duck. These ducks have been living the high life ever since. When they got home, Ben made a house for his duck, complete with nest, bed (with SpongeBob pillow), food (apparently ducks like tomatoes and mint) and bath. Ben had to bathe him and wash his hair before bed. Tonight, the ducks got to enjoy their own water park, complete with 4 separate pools, diving board, water slide, 3 lifeguards and a height measurement for the slide. 
Here's Ben's duck diving off the diving board
And then swimming backstroke
Why buy expensive gifts? They've played with those things for longer than anything else in recent memory.....
Here's Ben's duck diving off the diving boardAnd then swimming backstroke
Why buy expensive gifts? They've played with those things for longer than anything else in recent memory.....
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Trip to the magic house
We very rarely go to the Magic House, I guess it's always in my mind that it's expensive for what it is, but now that it's been expanded there is a lot more to do there. Ben has been wanting to go for quite a while, so I decided I'd just take them yesterday. Ben went there on a field trip recently, so he knew exactly what he wanted to do when he got there. I was surprised that he did a lot of the science things before he wanted to go in the detective room (the thing he'd been talking about doing). He is really growing up and getting older and will now pay attention to some of the details rather than just rushing from one thing to another. Maggie just follows Ben around and does whatever he does.
Both Ben & Maggie love to pull themselves up on the pulleys, one of the parents commented on how srtong they are and said her children were wimps. I think it's more a case of our children being small, everyone thinks they are much younger than they are.
Of course, wearing the judges robes and talking into the microphone in the supreme court room is always going to be the crowning glory on a trip to the Magic House!!!!
Now, if I can just remember that the Magic House is free on the 3rd Friday of each month, we can go on a regular basis (with the rest of St Louis of course!!)
Both Ben & Maggie love to pull themselves up on the pulleys, one of the parents commented on how srtong they are and said her children were wimps. I think it's more a case of our children being small, everyone thinks they are much younger than they are.Of course, wearing the judges robes and talking into the microphone in the supreme court room is always going to be the crowning glory on a trip to the Magic House!!!!
Now, if I can just remember that the Magic House is free on the 3rd Friday of each month, we can go on a regular basis (with the rest of St Louis of course!!)
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