Happy Birthday Harriet!

Today is my dear friend Harriet's birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day! Wish I could be there to help celebrate!

Fried Crispy!

Well, multiple applications of SPF 45 is no match for 5 hours at the
water park on a clear sunny day. Unlike the horrible sunburns of my
youth, some parts of my body were spared. Still, I'm in a wee bit of
pain. My little sister seemed to have a blast though, so I suppose it
was worth it. Maybe. Thankfully I mostly sleep on my side!

Last night I watered the back garden and then forgot to turn off the
hose! Oops! Mom called and distracted me, so I'm blaming her!

Knitting group is always a riot. In some ways, I'd love to write about
all the personalities, but anyone who attends any knitting group
already knows. It's safe to say our knitting group fits the norm! I
really enjoy going. Almost skipped tonight, but I'm glad I didn't.
It's good therapy!

Tomorrow's a new day. Hopefully some of my red will fade to brown by then.

--
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Something beautiful!

For those of you who have never used SAS, this may seem trivial. For those of you who have suffered through the initial learning of SAS code, this is a beautiful thing. In fact I'm doing a little SAS dance in my chair! Woohoo!

Here is the code I used to get this.

title 'educational data for 78 seventh-grade students';
data students;
input obs gpa iq gender concept;
datalines;
1 7.94 111 2 67
2 8.292 107 2 43
3 4.643 100 2 52
4 7.47 107 2 66
5 8.882 114 1 58
6 7.585 115 2 51
7 7.65 111 2 71
8 2.412 97 2 51
9 6 100 1 49
10 8.833 112 2 51
11 7.47 104 1 35
12 5.528 89 1 54
13 7.167 104 2 54
14 7.571 102 1 64
15 4.7 91 1 56
16 8.167 114 1 69
17 7.822 114 1 55
18 7.598 103 1 65
19 4 106 2 40
20 6.231 105 1 66
21 7.643 113 2 55
22 1.76 109 2 20
24 6.419 108 1 56
26 9.648 113 2 68
27 10.7 130 1 69
28 10.58 128 2 70
29 9.429 128 2 80
30 8 118 2 53
31 9.585 113 2 65
32 9.571 120 1 67
33 8.998 132 1 62
34 8.333 111 1 39
35 8.175 124 2 71
36 8 127 2 59
37 9.333 128 1 60
38 9.5 136 2 64
39 9.167 106 2 71
40 10.14 118 1 72
41 9.999 119 1 54
43 10.76 123 2 64
44 9.763 124 2 58
45 9.41 126 2 70
46 9.167 116 2 72
47 9.348 127 2 70
48 8.167 119 2 47
50 3.647 97 2 52
51 3.408 86 1 46
52 3.936 102 2 66
53 7.167 110 2 67
54 7.647 120 2 63
55 0.53 103 2 53
56 6.173 115 2 67
57 7.295 93 2 61
58 7.295 72 1 54
59 8.938 111 1 60
60 7.882 103 1 60
61 8.353 123 2 63
62 5.062 79 2 30
63 8.175 119 2 54
64 8.235 110 2 66
65 7.588 110 2 44
68 7.647 107 2 49
69 5.237 74 1 44
71 7.825 105 2 67
72 7.333 112 1 64
74 9.167 105 2 73
76 7.996 110 2 59
77 8.714 107 1 37
78 7.833 103 1 63
79 4.885 77 2 36
80 7.998 98 1 64
83 3.82 90 2 42
84 5.936 96 1 28
85 9 112 1 60
86 9.5 112 1 70
87 6.057 114 2 51
88 6.057 93 1 21
89 6.938 106 2 56
;
run;
PROC SORT data=students out=nsort;
by gender;
RUN;
PROC BOXPLOT data=nsort;
plot gpa * gender /boxstyle=schematic;
RUN;

Can I get an honorary computer science degree for this? Maybe not, but seriously this is my biggest acheivement of the day. I can think of about a million things I'd rather acheive today, but whatever...I'll take it.

What a day!

Today I got to hang out with my little sister. I signed up to be a big
sister through Big Brothers Big Sisters. If there are any guys reading
this...you should go sign up to be a big brother! Now! So anyway, my
little sister just turned 8. I've never really known an 8 year old.
It's all new and exciting. She still little in ways, like last week we
got ice cream cones and hers was down to her elbows, all over her face
and half of it dripped on the table. She's wants to be cool like her
13 year old sister though. So she talks like a teenager. It's
hilarious! Today we went to Columbian Park Zoo. That was kind of a
bust. I'm not sure they even had animals. So I suggested we go play
Putt-Putt (crazy golf for you Irish folks). She stopped in her tracks,
held up her finger and said, "ok, but first I think we need ice
cream!" How can I argue with that? Well, except that I've seen her eat
ice cream and know that it's a major ordeal in the clean up
department! We ended up with snow cones. Hers was blue...so were her
lips and tongue! She's great! We're going to have lots of adventures.

--
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Time to get serious...

I have been a horrible blogger lately. Exciting things are happening! Last Thursday I hit the road before the sun was up and drove all the way to Knoxville by myself. It was fabulous. I visited my dear friends, the Burkholders. We went camping in the Smokey Mountains and Friday morning we all went climbing! Even the kids! Talk about a fantastic trip! Friday night I got to chill out with my Euro-travel buddy, John in Louisville. Getting home was...well...frustrating. Between a speeding ticket (I was seriously NOT speeding...I just didn't know I was still in a construction zone) and all the major roads and interstates being flooded, it was quite an adventure. Got home all the same though.

Monday was my first day of school. Yeah! The research project is going well. My first day was 10.5 hours, but yesterday was a normal day. Well, not exactly. I had to be on campus by 7am. Today I don't have any research-related responsibilities which is nice. My statistics homework is nearly done! Good thing since it's due tomorrow! I have a meeting with Dr. Boushey in a few minutes. Hopefully some of my lingering questions will be answered!

Martin's socks are still a work in progress. Sock one is about 2/3 done. I don't know if I can do the other sock strait away. Might have to work on a sweater for a while. I'd much rather knit sweaters than socks! Of course, someday...some sweet day...I'd like to knit my self a pair! My next sweater pattern comes from the summer Interweaves Knits magazine; the Apres Surf Hoodie. Won't that be fabulous in cashmere? I have 51% cashmere 49% wool in a neutral color. I think it will be perfect for that sweater. The pattern has several concepts I'm not familiar with though, so I might go crazy. Step one: provisional cast on. How hard can it be, right?

Ok...meeting time!