SMT 2013: Charlotte

Last weekend was the SMT's Annual Theory-a-thon in Charlotte. While I was there, I also heard people refer to it as Theory Camp and Theory Christmas. Theory Camp I understand, but Theory Christmas...that's too much. 

Anyways, it was a productive, fun, and also exhausting conference, per usual. I got to reconnect with lots of people from IU, though none of the students in this IU department ad were present, including Mark: 

I got to see my former classmate, Drew (shown below), give a paper about baroque dance that was great! He also played piano in his presentation to demonstrate different conceptions of baroque meter, and his playing is excellent. Presentations with live performance are always the best. 

The DJ and Bryn were present with little Trudy and it was great to hang out with Mama DJ for a bit in between sessions! Trudy is cuter in real life than in pictures, if you can believe it. 

This year's conference had included several great pedagogy sessions, though I was sad to miss Bryn's as it was on Sunday morning, during my flight (but you can check out the materials here!). I found those sessions particularly inspiring and I'm going to try to incorporate some more new tech/media into my teaching. I love the idea of having a short, weekly podcast to introduce the topic of the week for my students. 

I also somehow managed to do a bunch of personal work during the conference weekend. My plan was to go to things when I wanted to, but not to force myself to go to any sessions just because I was there. The result was that I had a little extra time on my hands to write, especially Wednesday afternoon before everyone else arrived. I had the hotel room to myself and got all kinds of stuff written before my roommate, Anna, arrived. It turns out that an expensive hotel room that does not include internet is a good place to get stuff done because you don't have the internet to offer distractions. It did give me the idea to get a few fun colleagues together, rent a cabin (or cottage, as the locals always say) somewhere pretty, then work all day and have fun in the evening. It would be sort of like an informal writing retreat! 

On Saturday I went to the parties and snapped this picture of several senior theorists playing poker at the end of the Yale reception.

Then John went to AMS almost right after I got back from SMT. Bobo and I had the weekend to ourselves and we filled our time with walks in the gray weather.

This was our first fairly cold weekend - highs in the 30s - and it's starting to feel like winter, even if it still looks like fall. 

Bobo has her winter wear all ready to go. She's wearing her red, heavier coat in the photos above. And below you can see her knit sweater for moderately cold weather. As you can see, she loves them both. 

Another List, Because I'm Lazy

It's that time of year, I guess. A bunch of crazy stuff is happening in October so I'll have no shortage of stuff to blog about. But for now, another list of the happenings around here this week.

1. Swimming is fun, but getting up early is a struggle. Especially on a morning like last Tuesday when it was crazy foggy. You'll have to take my word for it that this is a picture of the UWO stadium at about 5:50 AM. Saturday evening practices are a little more chill; this week we did a time trial for 400 meters free, and then 50 meter freestyle sprints. It turns out I've added 1 second to my 50 free time per year since 2001, the last year that I was officially timed. So that's not awful, I guess. I can work it back down over the next few months before the first masters swim meet. Everyone on the team is super nice and encouraging, and there truly is a huge range of abilities. After the time trials, we also did some relays, and we played a game called the Human Cannon. Six of my teammates launched me forward to see how far they could move me if I didn't try to propel myself (I'd say I made it about 20 meters - impressive!). Why on earth did I wait 4 years to try the triathlon club? I have no idea. 

I'm ready for the weather to actually feel like fall, but I won't complain because I think complaining about it being 70 degrees and sunny is a #whitgirlproblem.

2. John and I have been taking turns bringing Her Ladyship, Le Beaux Royale, to the dog park. She blends in perfectly with the fall foliage, which, I have to say, is pretty beautiful. I had no idea London had such nice dog parks! She blends in so well, in fact, that you can hardly see her in this picture: 

Taking her to the dog park is a great way to end the day on Friday and it really makes her happy. Sometimes there are a couple of other greyhounds there, and the three of them start to approach warp speed. Last week they were running around the trees in the wooded area of the park, and I was amazed that they could avoid running into the trees head on. [NERD ALERT] It was like that scene in Return of the Jedi on Endor when they're chasing each other on air bikes (similar clip here).

3. Last week, my church invited Rev. John Shelby Spong to speak as part of a year-long series of events celebrating the church's 125th Anniversary. We had a great turn out! Also, look how pretty my church is. 

Spong is kind of a controversial and I think he prides himself on shaking up conventional thinking by making polemical statements. I was a tad disappointed in his talk, since he spent most of it using the history of science to disprove a lot of older church thinking (Galileo proved the Earth is flat, etc) that I didn't find particularly shocking or useful. Perhaps I'm being too picky, but I was hoping he would make some concrete suggestions about what could be done on a local level to address a lot of the church's problems (institutional misogyny, aging congregations, etc). On the other hand, a bunch of smart people from my church got together the following week to discuss their thoughts on his talk, and I really enjoyed that. The people at my church are willing to have uncomfortable conversations and that's a big part of why I keep going back. 

4. I only have to make it until Thursday afternoon before the fun starts. Then it's off to Michigan for a few days of Interlochen party time!

In the Beginning

The school year has begun. And because I'm too lazy to write a series of individual blog posts focused on fall topics, I've decided to cram all of it into this post in a convenient (for me) list format.


1. The first week of school has a way of being rough, sometimes for me, sometimes for humanity.
Here's a list of things that have happened to me and, seriously, to humanity, on the first week or day of school, starting with this year:

• Root canal (last Monday)
• Cast on my foot (last Tuesday)
• Diagnosed with mono (freshman year, 2003)
• Hurricane Katrina (junior year, 2005)
• 9/11 (junior year of high school)

Maybe it's a curse? Next year I may send out a warning to my friends and family so they know to be on the look out that week. The curse extends beyond me, as you can see.


2. My stress fracture is only sort of healing, so they booted me. I'm not sure how long it will last, as the doctor's cryptic words were "Let your pain be your guide."

This is my second boot. My first was in 2009, shown below, and it was more intense. Both times now I've wondered if the boot is actually helping my foot, or just distracting me by making other parts of my body hurt (hips, IT bands, ankles - it's hard to lug that thing around).

3. Triathlon Club starts this week, which means I have to be at the pool at 6:05 AM on Tuesday. I've also learned that I can register as an unattached swimmer with Masters Swimming Ontario and participate in some meets this year! Woohoo! Triathlon Club seems to be very organized and well staffed, and I'm looking forward to having an actual swim coach again. At their Q&A meeting this week they talked about all the practices, etc, but they also mentioned that they go to a bar after Saturday swimming, and that they have potlucks and a Christmas party!! They had me at potlucks.

If you'd like to watch the club's promotional video and GET AMPED, here it is. Seriously, if I weren't totally injured, I would sign up for the whole club. What with all the coaching staff, it's a freaking steal at $125 for the whole school year.

4. People ask me frequently how Bo is adjusting, and I'd say she's feeling good.

Matthew, who has decided he wants to be called Auntie Matthew, gave her this very nice UWO bandana! Purple Pride! Or, #purplereign, as I think the kiddies say.

She also managed to get a small cut on her leg that she could not stop licking, so we put a sock on her. She loved it, obviously. Here's a picture of her working on her "saddest greyhound in the world" face. It's one of her most consistent personas.

5. We made beer floats last week and they were awesome. First a chocolate stout, then pumpkin. Both awesome. 

6. I had one of the best weeks ever with my dissertation this week. I even had a good meeting with my advisor where we made a timeline to completion. It feels so real. I felt like saying, 

"Who's got 2 thumbs, reads limited 18th century French, and didn't want to cry once during her dissertation meeting?! This moi!" 

I also found a bunch of useful stuff in Rameau's Collected Theoretical Writings (ed. E. Jacobi). 

First, an awesome Debussy quote where he talks about what a great thinker Rameau was. 

Then I started reading a bunch of reviews of the treatise I'm writing about. And, for reasons that I won't bore you with, it's really helpful that they connect his Génération Harmonique with Newtonian physics. I got so happy reading it that I drew some smileys, which also help me find those passages when I need them.

7. Mama K. and I are going to Michigan in a few weeks for what was supposed to be our 10 year high school reunion. Since only a few people signed up, they canceled it. But we've got reservations at a cabin and I want to see my old teachers anyways, so we're going to go and make our own reunion. 

8. The back to school message we all need to be reminded of: 

Birthday Part 2: Ipperwash Beach

Continuing the dog-themed birthday weekend I've been having so far, today we went to Ipperwash Beach (Lake Huron) with Bo to swim and have a picnic dinner. Like usual, we went a bit later in the day so John could avoid the sun, and all of us were able to avoid the crowds. It's nice to pull up to the parking lot just as families with kids are heading home.

Bo was a champ in the car. She's either interested in looking around, or she settles down right away and enjoys the ride. This bodes well for our upcoming drive to Indiana.

Like most things, the beach made her a little nervous at first. So much noise! There were boats and kids and other dogs, and she was consumed with watching the seagulls fly around.

Several people complimented us on how beautiful she is - this happens everywhere we go. Obviously.

We made sandwiches and brought chips for our picnic, and I enjoyed a peanut butter and chocolate cupcake from Hey, Cupcake! Few things are better than sitting on the beach with your dog and eating a cupcake on your almost-birthday. 

Once my stomach was full of sandwiches, chips, and cupcake, Bo and I took a walk around the beach, and then a short run in the water. It went like this; I would coax her to jump and run a bit, and she was trot for a few steps, then try to shoot past me. When she couldn't keep going, she would do this horizontal flip in the air (a characteristic greyhound feat). I'm sure it didn't seem like real running to her, but she had a great time. Once she relaxed and had her dinner, she really enjoyed the lake. And bonus, my stress fractured foot didn't hurt at all! I think we'll be able to run together a bit this fall.

Bo rarely wags her tail or even raises it to show her mood. But once we got in the water, her tail curled right up to show she was having a good time. So far she only does that when she's swimming, meeting another dog, or staring at herself in the mirror.

I tried to take a family photo before we left. 

After Pawlooza and the beach this weekend, next weekend is going to seem awfully boring.

All the running and mental stimulation of the beach really tired her out and she slept like a baby the whole way home.

Birthday Part 1: Pawlooza

It's almost my birthday! Since it's on a Monday this year, John and I are observing it this weekend with some fun activities. The first: Pawlooza, a dog festival with tons of activities and vendors for all things dog related. They have everything; an off leash play area with a pond, a lure course, agility demos and an agility course for guests to try, a bunch of open water and streams for dogs to play in and get a drink, and vendors with every pet related product you can think of. The festivities started at 10:30 and we tried to get there as close to the start as possible. But as soon as we parked, I realized that everyone else had the same idea. There were hundreds of people and their dogs there. 

From the start we could tell that Pawlooza was exceptionally well run. Parking attendants guided us to our spot, others directed us to the main festival grounds, and everything ran on time per their schedule of events. 

We started off with the lure course, since it already had a decent sized line and we wanted to get a chance for Bo to run before things got too busy. While in line, we ran into several other greyhounds. It amazes me how big they are! Bo is smaller than any greyhound we've met so far.

We also saw a greyhound run the lure course ahead of us (that's him below). He didn't seem to be running full out and he was still flying! I was nervous for Bo to run the lure course because I didn't want her to get hurt; I also thought she just might not get what she was supposed to do. Fortunately, she only spent a few seconds wandering around before she spotted the lure and she was on the move. And she was beautiful! I think it put her in a great mood for the rest of the day. She loved getting to run again like that.

Then we headed into the vendor area to explore.

We met up with our friends, Samantha and Adam, and their dog, Donna. We explored the festival together for the better part of the morning.

We saw little dogs.

[Sidenote: I was impressed with these chinese cresteds in their Seuss shirts, since they pretty much already look like characters out of a Dr. Seuss book.]

And we saw big dogs. I saw more great danes and bull mastiffs today than I have in my whole life. 

And these big fluffy ones were really friendly while we were in the falafel line.

What with all the ponds and streams, Bo had plenty of opportunities to swim. She welcomed it in the hot weather. I still can't believe how she takes to water. She's like a fish in a dog costume!

Greyhounds only have about 15% body fat, and they're not natural swimmers. Maybe it was the heat, but Bo was all about the water. I'm all the more excited to taker her to the beach for the first time.

We took breaks from swimming time to walk around and look at all the booths.

We watched some dogs participate in the dock diving contest.

Some dogs balked at the end of the dock, but this german shepherd followed the ball all the way into the lake. The guy in the kayak was there to help dogs know where to go after jumping in, and to retrieve tennis balls that went unclaimed by the dogs.

Then Bo was back in the water, making friends.

And just splashing around.

We had such a nice time at this festival. Everything about it was so well organized - even the port-potties were cleaner than usual and came with actual sinks. The whole festival is run by volunteers and 100% of the entry fee ($10 per vehicle) goes to rescue charities. Pawlooza has events all around the U.S. and Canada, so they may have a festival near you! I know Bo will be happy to return next year.