Trick or Treat!

I'm a little worried. Sarah has discovered that she is cute and can use her cuteness to her advantage. Can someone who is 22 months old be manipulative? I would think not but evidence supports the opposite conclusion. Tonight was Beggar's Night (trick-or-treat). Jenna was dressed as Sleeping Beauty and Sarah was Little Red Riding Hood. They were both adorable. Even so, Jenna did not use her cuteness to obtain extra candy at neighbor's houses like Sarah did. This is a little disturbing. Sarah came home with more than Jenna and mostly M&Ms which she calls "nummy".

On Wednesday I went to the doctor because I had been sick for the past couple of days. It was getting so bad that for three days I just laid on the couch and let the girls watch TV (Jenna thought it was great). The doctor listened to my symptoms and said she thought I had H1N1. Bummer. I told my deans that I probably wouldn't be able to go to work that night and they said they didn't want me to go in Thursday either. That was kind of a bummer since I don't like to miss class. It was good though because I really couldn't do anything but lay on the couch anyway.

In other news:

1. One of the fantasy blogs I read has talked quite a bit about Sherrilyn Kenyon. So I picked up Acheron at the library. This book is so interesting. It is fantasy set in 9548 B.C. and is about Atlantian gods. Most fantasy is set in a medieval setting, this is more interesting for the setting and the writing is compelling. I'll definitely read more of her work.
2. The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson arrived at my door today. So I'll be occupied for the next few days ;).
3. Erik starts his new job on Monday - Yea! I'm so excited for him and he is just as excited.
4. 74 points in Quiddler today and ith was not a word. "ith" is definitely a word! When you are referring to a series and talking about the ith item in the series you would use that word. I need to take this up with Quiddler.
   
   

Favorite Programming Language

Per Joel's request - I have created my list of favorite programming languages! I only included programming languages that I have programmed in - not languages like Ruby on Rails even though that would so be on my list if I included everything.

1. Perl. Oh perl how I love thee... let me $count the ways. Perl is loosely typed. Named after Matthew 13:45-46 (so it's God's language). It is a perfect language for all things bioinformatics. I can do so many things so quickly in perl. It's flexible and quick. Here's a line of code from the final exam I gave in my BMI courses to extract data from a microarray file: ($line=~ m/(\w+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)/). Now that's good stuff.
2. SQL. Whether you are purist and pronounce it "essquel" or someone who goes with the flow and pronounces it "sequel", SQL is a great language for manipulating databases. I've grown to love this language as I teach it all the time. It's easy to use and just makes sense.
3. VBA. Visual Basic for Applications is a programming language you can use to write macros in Excel. This is one of my favorite things ever! Every semester students bring spreadsheets they need help with and I write macros for them to make life easier. Such a fun language.
4. HTML. This is such an easy versatile language, what's not to like? In about half an hour I can teach anyone how to program in HTML. It's easy and fun.
5. ASP. NET. I love to create websites with database backends. This you can do easily with ASP.NET. I've created several for work and hope to do one soon for PDHC.
6. Matlab. I've always loved Matlab. I wish I could work with it more. How else can you do linear algebra so fast! Matlab has a bioinformatics toolbox that we used in the BMI courses and I miss it.
7. VB.NET. The .NET platform is leaps and bounds better than VB6. Unfortunately I was too lazy to convert many of my programs to VB.NET so I still have some in VB6. Even so, I love VB.NET
8. Java. I wrote my entire genetic algorithm for my research in Java so it should definitely be on the list. While I wrote a lot of classes and all that, I prefer the lazy programming of perl.
9. C++. Before Java I used a lot of C++ in my programming courses. It was actually difficult to move from C++ to Java for my research because I was so used to C++. However I've come to like Java more. Still C++ holds a special place in my heart.
10. Basic. When I was 10 years old I wrote my first program in Basic and never looked back. It showed me a world of working with computers that I knew I would always enjoy.

What are your favorite programming languages?

Falling leaves

Fall is upon us and with fall comes leaves. Lots and lots of leaves. The girls love to play in the leaves in our backyard so I rake them up only to have them jumped in and scattered all over the backyard.


Fabulous and fun!

I wanted to get a picture of the burning bush by our driveway. It is such a beautiful red but this picture does not capture it. I love to look at it - a burst of color.

Last Thursday we went to a pumpkin patch with a corn maze, real hayride (yes I had hay in my hair!) and animals for the kids to pet. After the hayride we had apple cider and popcorn. I gave the girls the popcorn in the car because we had to leave early since I had to give a final that night. When we got home, I was not prepared for the mess. Apparently it's a bad idea to give little girls popcorn to spread all over the car.


I've been looking forward to the end of this semester. With two new classes I was really stretched but they went really well. Now this semester I'm teaching math and basic computer applications. Much easier!


In other news:

1. We are all SICK! I think I might have the flu. My whole body hurts and my head feels woozy (if that's a word). However we know God is protecting us. Sarah woke up saying "Jesus". Erik asked her questions about Jesus. She said "yes" that Jesus was in her room last night helping her feel better. So cute! Of course when we tried to get a video she didn't cooperate that much. Check it out here.
2. We have had fabulous attendance at our Bible study since I've been making dinner. In fact, one week we ran out of food! This week I'm making 3 meatloafs, mashed potatoes, homemade dinner rolls, and sesame green beans. I hope I have enough.
3. Erik starts his new job Nov. 2. We are both so excited! He is going there (Boston) for a week to train for his new job.
4. The same day he starts his new job, I get to sub a Photoshop class! I'm going to use some of my examples (especially my Fremen eyes picture) to show them the awesome things you can do with Photoshop.
5. Speaking of Fremen, I just started reading Children of Dune by Frank Herbert. I read Dune and Dune Messiah many years ago but hadn't continued the series. I don't know why I didn't continue the series. I love the world of Dune.
6. I also just finished A Merry Heart by Wanda Brunstetter. This book was okay. It was a book about an Amish woman who was jilted in love. It's hard to go from Children of Dune to A Merry Heart. I don't know why I mix genres so much.
7. 46 on Quiddler today. I really have to remember not to use all my U's when a Q might show up.

Fall Festival

On Saturday we went to the Fall Festival and chili cook off at church. There was a "turtle lady" there who had turtles and snakes for kids to pet and watch walk around the church. Sarah tried to climb in the cage with the turtles.

I tried 8 different chilis which was wonderful! I love chili but do not make it often since Erik is not such a fan. I was stuffed! There was a bouncy house and hay ride at the fall festival too. Jenna has also made some good friends. You can see her here with Paige (left) and Kate (right). These girls also come to our Tuesday home group and Jenna really likes them. Jenna spent the entire night holding hands with Paige. I'm so glad she has found some good friends! Towards the end of the evening, our whole family was roasting marshmallows outside by the bonfire, but Jenna and I decided to come in. After about half an hour Erik and Sarah came in and Sarah had a marshmallow in her mouth just as you can see in the picture. I thought it was the same marshmallow (yucky). However, Erik said she ate tons of marshmallows while she was out there. Great. I've won mother of the year this time! Sugar overload.

Joel has requested me to write a list of my favorite programming languages. I'm working on such a list right now. So you can sit on the edge of your seat waiting for my awesome list (yes awesome it will be!)

We are planning on going to the Fabulous Food Show in Cleveland the weekend of Nov. 13-15. I'm so excited about this! Celebrity chefs will be there along with food tasting and cooking demonstrations. This should be completely awesome.

Now you might wonder why I have flexed my photoshop skills again with my picture. My highlights had grown out to the point that half my hair was brown and half was orange, so I decided to color it with Revlon's natural dark brown/black. Well it is mostly black. I am not a big fan of my hair as it is black as night (which apparently helps me fit the role of snow white according to Jenna). However, I noticed that Megan Fox has dark hair/ almost black. So I wanted to see if I looked much like Megan Fox now. My brown eyes may have gotten in the way so I colored them blue. Then my nose was much bigger than hers so I shrunk it a little. What do you think? Am I a spitting image of the Transformers star?

82 points on Quiddler today and I got to make the word "raver". Tonight I also beat Erik at squash - yipee!

Port: A physical interface between a computer and a peripheral device

As I was sitting by the fire on our camping trip, rather than reflecting on the beautiful night or reclining in a prayerful repose, I came up with a new top ten list! Yipee! Just what you wanted to hear!
This top ten list will be sure to interest anyone who has the bad luck to stumble upon it.
I've made a list of my top ten favorite computer ports.

1. Ultra Wide SCSI - yes! Who wouldn't pick this one as number one! At my old job I had an external hard drive that connected with a 1 nanometer cable (not really that short it just seemed like it) to an ultra wide scsi port on my SGI. Awesome stuff.
2. USB - I know this would be most people's favorite port (those people who are actually cool enough to create a list of their favorite ports!). This port is so versatile - I think I might even use it to do my laundry. It can do almost anything! Throw out your floppies and zip drives - USB drives are way better!
3. Firewire - I'm just picking this one because of the name. I've never used firewire, but if I was a port I'd want to be called firewire. Sometimes it's all in the name. For example, I was talking to Erik about Megan Fox. I said that I think everyone thinks she is so pretty because her last name is Fox. Ummm.... yea. I think those are Erik's exact words but his facial expressions told me that sometimes it is not just the name.
4. Ethernet port - This port deserves high recognition. It connects computers together so they can pass data and information (school teacher definition mode). In my computer communications course in grad school we never called it an ethernet cable or a cat-5 cable, always twisted pair wire. I guess I also call adhesive bandages, band-aids. I'm a little crazy like that.
5. DVI - This port just looks cool with its neat set of pins. When we got our first monitor with DVI I thought there was something wrong with it, like some of the pins got eaten. Half eaten ports are always tops in my book.
6. PS/2 - When hooking up my computer in college, I loved the color coded PS/2 ports for my mouse and keyboard. They are also somewhat round and round ports have really gotten the shaft! lately.
7. Video port - Since I connect my laptop to an LCD projector for my lectures, I just have to love the video port. It's nice to be able to project my screen so everyone in the class can see, even when I forget to turn off my outlook updates. Fabulous!
8. Parallel port - I liked being able to attach my printer to my parallel port. Again it has a lot of pins which makes it more attractive than the serial port. And serial ports always make me think of lucky charms.
9. Midi port - This is a musical port that allows computers, synthesizers, and keyboards to communicate. How cool that the computer likes music too! Maybe I can get it hooked on my contemporary Christian station.
10. Serial port - I mentioned earlier that I like parallel ports better than serial ports but it doesn't mean I don't like serial ports! My mouse used to connect with a serial port before the much more awesome PS/2 port.

Well that's my list. I didn't think through all of the possiblities of ports and Erik wouldn't let me put coaxial cable on there (even though that is a totally rockin' port) because he said it didn't count as a computer port. I wonder if there are others that might blur the lines...

75 points on quiddler today and herm is a word!

Monster ball

We went on our last camping trip of the season this weekend. We went to Buckeye Lake for their Monster Ball. On Saturday the girls painted pumpkins and entered them in a contest (they didn't win). We played in the sand and the jumping pillow Buckeye Lake KOA has. While this KOA is expensive we like it quite a bit. So we decided to renew our KOA membership (it gives you a discount on camping).

At 5pm we rode a fire truck and then a wagon. The girls had a great time on both. Then they changed into costumes: Jenna = snow white, Sarah = little red riding hood and trick or treated at the campground. This resulted in a lot of candy and important disucssions as to the order of eating candy. Erik thinks the best candy should be eaten last. I think the best candy should be eaten first and maybe never eat the other candy. I came up with a tier system for candy:

• Tier 1: reeces cups, kit kat, butterfinger, mr. goodbar, nestle crunch (basically yummy chocolate candy bars)
• Tier 2: snickers, milky way, three musketeers (still yummy)
• Tier 3: plain chocolate, milk duds, whoppers (good - not great)
• Tier 4: nerds, tootsie roll lollipops (I guess I'll eat it)
• Tier 5:runts, sweet tarts, tootsie rolls (not tempting at all)
• Tier 6: laffy taffy, dum dums, hard candy, pixie sticks (might get *accidently* thrown away)
• Tier 7: black jelly beans (yuck)
  
  Erik and I had vastly different candy tiers since he likes wonka and all wonka is basically tier 4 and below.

Saturday night we put the girls to bed and sat outside by the fire. We had a nice night talking and relaxing. Sarah was warm when we put her to bed but gave her some tylenol and thought she would be fine.

At 12:30 she woke up screaming and was burning up. It burned me to touch her! I tried to get her to take more tylenol but she threw it up. She threw up milk and everything else too. On Saturday she didn't eat much but she doesn't eat much anyway so we didn't think she was that sick. I ended up being awake with her most of the night calming her.

Then I decided we were leaving in the middle of the night. Since I have the best husband ever, we packed up in the middle of the night and left the campground. At home I just held her and gave her a bath. She cooled down some but is still sick. Keep praying for her.

On the ride home, Erik = awesome father. Erik decided that instead of listening to rock music on the radio, he is going to listen to the River when the girls are in the car with him. SCORE! He wants them to hear and repeat good Christian lyrics. Mwaahahaha....I will soon turn everyone to listening to my contemporary Christian music!

88 points today on quiddler. No bonuses!

Jesus at Ren Fest?

Today we went to the Renaissance Festival and had a fabulous time as usual! Jenna rode several rides and both girls rode ponies. We ate medieval food, watched the Mudd show and jousting, and enjoyed the general atmosphere. When we were at the pirate show, Sarah started saying "Jesus" and doing the sign for Jesus. I've posted a picture of the pirate - I'm not exactly sure he resembles Jesus but apparently Sarah thinks so.

This year the Renaissance Festival had a board game shop. This was new (we don't remember it last year or previous years - yes we go every year!). The shop had the usual catan and carcassone games as well as some new interesting games. We did buy Kids of Catan for Jenna to play. It looks like fun so I'm excited to play with her.

I know you were all sitting on the edge of your seats in anticipation to see how my experiment with the Love Handler turned out. 6 weeks ago I started rubbing this lotion on my belly to tone up my midsection. Well in the 6 weeks I have lost 0.5"! Wow! I was so excited. However I fasted on yesterday and the day before. So I hadn't eaten for 2 days when I measured my belly. So it probably actually didn't work. Then Erik made the comment that it probably only works on people with a little belly fat. Apparently I have too much belly fat for it to work on me :). Today I pigged out at the Ren fest so maybe I regained my 0.5".

On Tuesday at Bible study everyone ate all of my sun dried tomato chicken pasta. This week I'll be making 5 quiches. I hope it will be enough!

75 points on Quiddler today. Apparently "luver" isnt' a word. Who knew?