15 Months

Today, Harper is 15 months old! Can you believe it? I can't. She's not a baby any more - definitely more of a big girl than a baby. She's beginning to appreciate the finer things in life. Last night, she attended her very first symphony concert. The university I work for partnered with the Nashville Symphony to provide a free outdoor concert. It was wonderful. Harper loved it. Although I'm not sure that she understood that everyone was clapping for the musicians and not for her. Here's a picture of her dancing to one of the tunes. 

PT Cruisers Caught In The Act

Since I posted my theory on PT Cruisers, many people have told me their stories of inappropriate Cruiser behavior. Keep them comin'. Send me pictures. I'll post them. Here is a picture I took yesterday in my parking garage at work. I think it speaks for itself. I actually saw this lady (attempt to) park. I didn't take the picture right then (that would have been awkward), but luckily the car was still there when I left for the the day. Sorry for the poor picture quality. I took it with my cell phone. 

Random Monday

A couple things for today:

I worked out on Saturday for the first time in a long time. It kicked my butt. I tried to do the same type of workout that I could do about 2 years ago when I was exercising on a regular basis. Bad idea. I used this medieval torture device:

By the time I went to bed last night, I could barely move my legs. Walking is excruciating. Sitting indian style is out of the question. This is why people don't work out. 

On another note, Rob and I watched a funny movie last night - Role Models. I should tell you that this is not a kid's movie. The language is horrible and the subject matter is at times questionable. However, I did learn a fun fact while watching it: 

In the next sequence, his girlfriend informs him that they call it a venti because it's 20oz of liquid. Then she breaks up with him and hilarity ensues. 

Rain

I love this series. If you don't know what this is, you should. Go here to find out more. 

When the Science Hits the Fan - Rain and Sleep

It's rainy here today. I actually like rainy days, especially when I have the time and ability to take a nice rainy day nap (which doesn't happen very often anymore...). I, like most of you, get sleepy when it rains. In fact, I'm tired right now. I was wondering this morning if there is a scientific explanation to why people feel so sluggish when it rains. So....I looked it up. And what I found may surprise you. 

There haven't been many scientific studies done on how weather affects sleep. I found one from a group of Psychiatrists at the University of Rochester. They asked 43 people (who were students at the University) to keep a detailed sleep diary for 105 days. Then they tried to correlate how well the students slept with 9 meteorologic variables - temperature, dew point, snow depth, precipitation, barometric pressure, wind speed, duration of daylight, visibility, and moon phase. Briefly, they found that high barometric pressure (associated with a sunny day), low precipitation, and lower temperatures were associated with spending more time in bed and having better quality sleep. This is opposite to what I would have expected based on how I generally feel when it's nice out versus when it's rainy out. 

I don't know what all of this means in the big scheme of things. The group from Rochester admits that their study has some limitations. In addition, all of the comments that I found on sleep discussion forums disagreed with the results of their study and tended to side with the argument that rain = sleep. I guess, more scientific experimentation needs to be done to get a definitive answer to this one. Let me be the first to volunteer if they need someone to take a nap. 

Cardinal Sin

I hit a cardinal on the way into work this morning and I feel terrible about it. There was nothing I could do. It must have been some sort of a kamikaze bird, because it flew right into my car. Poor little guy. 

Hitting the bird this morning reminded me of a story from a long time ago. I was driving in a car with my boyfriend at the time. We were on our way to the prom. I was so excited - that is, until he hit a cat. I was horrified and so was he (kind of). He yelled "Oh no! I just washed this car!" It was at that moment, I knew he wasn't the one for me...

The Next Van Gogh

Harper loves to go to baby school. I don't blame her. It's fun there. They do all kinds of interesting activities. What I like most about her school is that the teachers take pictures of the kids during activities so that their parents can see what they've been up to. I love to see Harper in action. It makes me feel a little more connected to her during the day. Here are a few pictures from last week. The theme of all of the activities last week was "What lives underground?" - so for art, they painted with "worms" and potatoes. 

Pay no attention to the paint on her lips. 

I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation for that...